Obituary

Socorro Q Renteria July 31, 1926 -Dec 5, 2012

You brought so much joy to so many by your smile and your spirit. You loved to sing, talk to animals, dance and make other people laugh. You always tried to give and never placed a value on material things. Nobody was immune to your charm. You were strong, stubborn, and yet always loving. You never let the heartaches, tragedies, and struggles of the world diminish your light. It was impossible to tell you what to do and even more impossible not to love you. Your life lives on in the hearts of those that love you. SERVICES Tues Dec 11th Funeraria del Angel (7 E University) Viewing (10am) Services (11am) Burial @ Holy Hope Cemetery (1230)

Eulogy for my Nana

Two months ago nana and I were riding home in the car and my heart was heavy with worry and sadness. The doctor had just told us that everything would not be alright for my nana and the end may be looming near. We drove home in silence and I struggled to come to grips about what a world without my nana would look like. Engrossed in sadness I looked over to nana in the passenger side. I immediately noticed her frantic hand motions as she raised her fingers to her mouth. Nana was urgently trying to lower the widow on the passenger side so that she could whistle at a nearby shirtless jogger!

"Nana!" I said shaking my head and laughing, " I think only one of us is taking this seriously!"

The truth was, my nana always tried to see the best out of every situation in life. The first time my nana fought cancer she said she was afraid, but by the second and third time my nana confessed that she trusted the Lords timing and was at peace with the plan he had for her life. No man can keep you from God and no man can send you to God before your time was ready.

My nana always had a lot of faith in God and reached out to churches wherever she was at. She always kept illustrated bibles at her house that she would read to us from. She encouraged us to allow God to be a part of our lives. My nana also kept scandalouso VC Andrews books in the house that including Flowers in the Attic but I guess that's besides the point.

And while my nana always nurtured a walk with God in all if us, my nana never confused religion with relationships with God. As the story goes my nana found God whoever she was at. If she was nearest a baptist church then under the water a 'babtising she would go, if she was attending a Catholic Church then she would repeat the rosary three times. If the charismatic church came a calling then nana would speak in tongues and roll around on the floor praising God and waving her hands. The church wasn't just a building but it was about the people.

The important part for my nana was reaching out to others and getting involved. She was a passionate person and sitting on the sidelines of life was never an option. I will never forget as we sat down nana once told me a story of a man who's wife left him alone with eight children to care for in Mexico. Nana was collecting items to take to the children to help relieve the man of his heavy burden. She looked at me and said very seriously and slowly, " In this life money comes...money goes...money comes...money goes...". I understood what she was trying to tell me. Money was such a temporary thing and if I wanted happiness in this life I shouldn't place it on the temporary joys of material things. True life was about investing in people not collecting paper sheets. Two weeks later I understood nana's words about money going away when i got in a car accident and my money sure went alright.

That story was key for me. As I looked around nana's house I realized she kept boxes and boxes of what appeared to be useless objects. It was a life long habit my nana had of collecting things. It always made me laugh looking at her mountain of boxes. As kids we used the clothes as dress up and played with all the objects inside as toys. It wasn't until that moment and that story that it finally clicked for me. They weren't always the same boxes. All the items in the boxes were constantly changing. Like clockwork my nana made trips to Mexico every 3-6 months where she would take her latest collection of clothes, toys, and household objects to give to those in need. My nana would hitchhike, take a bus, ask a neighbor for a lift...whatever nana had to do to ensure those boxes got delivered. Then she would return and start collecting all over again. It was a lifelong commitment for my nana -- to provide to those who did not have much.

In the later years of my Nana's life she began to get sick from traveling the long distance between here and Mexico. Every time she came back from Mexico she would spend a week in bed laid up. Fever, coughing, exhaustion. But still she persisted. Finally one day this year she realized her body was giving out and the trips were taking too much out of her. She looked at me and said "No more, I will begin to get rid of the boxes." True to her word she stopped going down to Mexico and her unofficial shipping business came to an end. Although let's be honest she kept collecting random stuff in boxes until the very end. She could never get out of the habit even though all of my Tios and Tia's have tried! It was like an episode of hoarders!

My nana was never an angel in this life. Which is one of the things I loved about her. She was passionate, headstrong, stubborn and could be brutally honest. When a neighborhood kid asked her what nana thought about her new Dora backpack my nana replied, "The backpack is beautiful but what are you going to do about your hair. It looks like you are running around like wild jungle animal. You shouldn't be running around with hair like that. Tell your mom I said to fix it. But I like your backpack." Needless to say the young girl walked away confused clutching her Dora backpack.

Once when I was very young, my brother and I were playing outside and my nana made us promise that we would be back before sundown. But we were having a good time with our friends so of course we didn't show up back home until extremely late way past sundown. Nana was very upset and openly chastised us that the devil was going to punish us for being bad kids. As we lay in bed that night my brother and I began to see shadows on the wall from eerie trees that looked like the hand of Satan reaching out right to get us. Screaming and yelling we ran to nana's room. "Nana! The devil is outside he is trying to get us!" we shouted. Nana lifted her head and pointed to get out of the room. "We'll that's what you bad kids get. If the devil doesn't take you then maybe I will see you in the morning!" And with that she shooed us out of the door. As my brother and I lay huddled in the center of the bed crying we vowed to never disobey nana again.

There is so much more I wish I had time to share about my nana because I loved her deeply. She was silly and fun and always looked for ways to make people laugh. She didn't mind acting like a clown as long as everyone had a good chuckle. Coming home from a party I once asked nana if she had a nice time. "I had a very good time," she said " I was able to make lots of people laugh and that makes me happy...and I didn't even have to use any cuss words!!!" She said.

I want to leave you with one final story. A story about the sustenance of God who always provided for my nana. She never had a million dollars but she always had what she needed. This story takes place during a hike in mexico. Nana had taken my brother and I for a hike with each of us only carrying our water canteens. As the sun rose it began to get hotter but onward we went up to the top of the moutain. Soon we reached it's peak and we were exhausted and hungry. "Nana!" we shouted " We are hungry and we have nothing to eat!" Our dusted covered faces were frowning in frustration. Nana looked around carefully surveying the area. "Do you guys want oranges? " Nana asked in a sweet voice. "Nana!" we both shouted, not wanting to play games, " You didn't bring any oranges!" We pouted and crossed our arms not happy with our situation. Then like magic... Nana reached on one side of her bra and and pulls out an orange. Then she reaches in at the other side of her bra and pulls out a other orange. Un milagro! A miracle! Some say my nana never had much in the life but she always had a house filed with love.

Oh Brother, technology!

"The internet made my husband cheat on me so I need to join a gym and make him close his Facebook account!" she said in a serious tone.

These are true words spoken to a friend of mine. It appeared that the evils of the internet had interfered with her marriage and sent her world crumbling down.The internet had struck again. It was all the fault of modern technology. Or was it? Personally I find it hard to believe that the internet alone can be blamed for every affair or evil. Is the internet a monster? Or does it reveal the monsters that already lurk?

I have had my fair share of internet incidents to swear it off for good but as luck would have it technology made miracles happen this week for me. From the depths of my keyboards through all of the servers and across different wireless routers and finally back to my screen I was able to accomplish something I haven't yet been to able to do.

I found my long lost brother who I haven't spoken to in twelve years.

While I had tried to use conventional routes to find him, none of them worked. It wasn't until I checked again on Facebook that I found him. All those years of asking around and Mark Zuckerberg had tracked him down for me. A recently opened account finally would bridge those twelve years together. Without delay I reached out with the long arm of technology.

"Hi brother!" I posted on his wall.

I paused waiting for a response knowing it had to travel 120 miles to get to him.

"Hey Brother." he stated, ending a decade long silence between us.

Just like that technology made a miracle happen. And I know I'm not the only one who technology reached this week with miracles of wonder. I read a story earlier this week about a man who had been kidnapped as a baby and was well into his 30's befpre he discovered his own likeness on a site for missing children. After several phone calls authorities were able to look into his background and discovered he was taken as 5-month old baby. His father, who had never stopped looking for him, was thunderstruck and amazed.

The power of technology bringing people together. Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid of it after all. Study after study and large blazing newspaper headlines continually try to convince us that the all of our gadgets only make us more isolated and distant from each other. Maybe the next technological horizon will bring us closer in contact than mankind has ever been before.

I was so excited and triumphant about finding my long lost brother that I began to tell a friend who walked into the room.

"I finally found my brother!" I said as I noticed my friend pull out something from his pocket.

"Oh really?" he said eyes down while I began to share the details.

"I haven't seen him in twelve years! It's just so crazy! I can't believe I was finally was able to track him down! Can you believe it! All because of the wonders of technology! What a crazy world right!" I said smiling eyes wide and looking for his equally excited response.

"Huh?" he said ,"That's nice"

I stayed silent and just stared for a sec.

"Oh what where you saying?" he asked noticing my silence ," I wasn't really listening I was trying to get my blasted phone to work."

#$%@^&% technology!

Cat Scratch Reader

I once read an entire article on parking lots. Five pages to be exact. I would have never thought one could write five pages about a parking lot but the New York Times managed to pull it off. One of my goals this year is to find out what's going on in the world -- even if it's about parking lots.

Some stories even originate in parking lots. At least that's what I found out this week at the coffee shop. We have a group of security guards who come in at various times of the day, I have never figured out quite how many of them there are. My guess is at least a dozen but the number is probably higher than that.

We often make small talk and over the years I would think we would have exhausted every topic possible. That is until today we talked about cats.

"Can I have some cold water with ice for the cats?" ask the security guard with a smile.

"Cats?" I ask confused, "What cats?"

"The cats who live here of course! I thought everbody knew about the cats!" he said cheerily grasping the cup of water.

As it turns out a a litter of cats was found years ago near the parking lot of the mall. Some of the cats died and the mom pulled one away never to be seen again. She slinked away in the shadows, kitten in mouth.

In a strange turn of events the Humane Society had recently moved into the mall after the economy crashed and left an abnormal amount of empty store fronts in the mall. They took in the remaining kittens and found them a home.

It seemed as if the case of the cats had been resolved as quickly and quietly as it had begun.

But of course, the cat came back just not the very next day. It was several months later. The last time they saw this kitten it was being carried away...but now it had returned with no mother to be seen. It hung around a couple of days and they gave it some water. Despite the vastness of the shopping center it never strayed very far and started hunting for food around the lot. It wasn't long before they dubbed the cat 'Trouble' and the name stuck.

Trouble became useful in catching vermin and so he quickly gained the admiration of the officers. The security guards made a home for him, provided food and water, and each took turns watching out for the cat. He quickly became an honorary member of the security squad and the Humane Society agreed to neuter him for free.

Soon another cat showed up scrawny and in need of a home. He became companions with Trouble. No one could settle on a name for this new found cat so everyone just gave him a different nickname. It could be Roy one day or Charlie the next. Every one still knew who they were talking about and it wasn't long before Roy/Charlie/Tom got the old snip snip action himself.

Now there were two cats living in a mall when for all intents and purposes there should be none.

"Once they go," stated the security officer in a solemnly voice , "That will be the end of it. No more cats for us."

He seemed to mean it although I couldn't be so sure. The pair of felines seemed to be a big morale boost for the security team and I guess they were also a hit with some of the ladies at the nearby department stores. They would come in on lunch breaks to visit and have those cats brighten their day.

"Did you know about the cats?" I ask turning to the barista next to me.

"Of course," she said, "Everyone knows about the cats!"

And so they did. It felt kind of strange to realize that all this time there were cats living in corridors so close that I knew nothing about. Two little kittens found a big home. I was spending all of my time looking for unique stories about parking lots in foreign places that I forgot. Sometimes the only parking lot you need to look at is your own.