Goodbye Mom

                                                                     

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Joann, Me, Jane, Lucy, Mike, Mom

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Today we buried my Mom. It was her second funeral.

 

 

She died on New Years day and I went to Napa California to help my sister Jane with the funeral.

 

 

Jane and I during summer visit.

 

 

After the viewing and funeral there, I took Mom's ashes home with me.

 

 

 

Uncle Mario is the only one left now and I hope he and Aunt Rose stay with us for a very very long time. He was my mother's younger brother. Aunt Anna, the oldest, had died many years ago. My mom and her siblings were born in Benevento Italy.

                                   Uncle Mario, Mom, Aunt Rose and cousin Rickie                                     
                                                                     
                             
My mother was fifteen when she moved to America with my grandparents, her sister and brother, which was a good thing because her childhood home was bombed during World War Two, and her cousins who were living in the house, all died.
                                                      

My Mom moved to Napa when Jane and I were in our late teens and Lucy and Michael were around 12 and 13 (long story, too much drama and I really don't want to dwell on it) Napa is a fine place to live if you can afford it. When we were older, my siblings and I would try to visit whenever we could get our hands on some extra money or Mom would drive down with her new husband in their Winnebago, whenever possible.
                                                                                                                      

We tried to get her to move back East, but Mom loved Napa (I don't blame her; it is beautiful) and refused to come back to the snow and slush.

My sister Jane the one that I tried to do away with since her birth, moved to California and never came back. She met a guy, they married, and had two sons. When Mom died, I was the only able to go out and although we fight like cats and dogs; this trip brought Jane and I closer to each other.

Jane is afraid that I won't visit as often because Mom is no longer there, but she's wrong. I will go when I can and as often as I can...remember I owe her a visit with the Fudgie Wudgie man.
                                                   

It took Forty something years, but Mom is finally back home with us kids and we can visit her more often.

                          Although, we would have preferred it not to be at a cemetery.

                                                              Love you Mommy.