A Double Dose Of Grief

I shaved this week for the first time in many years … the modern version, I suppose, of pulling out one’s beard. You see this was a week to grieve doubly … once for the two year anniversary of my mother’s death on November 6th, and before that for a reason that I’m not yet at liberty to share.

Needless to say, there has been weeping and sadness hanging over our family this week. As part of that, I’d like to share two things …

• The lyrics of a Fernando Ortego song.
• A small booklet I put together for my mother’s funeral, now newly formatted in a PDF so it can be shared digitally.

For family and friends, both near and far, it would be my hope that you would find some joy in the reading of this booklet as it celebrates the very unique and special life of my mother.

The Fernando Ortego song is about his own mother, and has been dear to me for many, many years because I lived two states away from mine and feared that I would not be present when she passed away.

Sadly, this fear was realized when she died before my plane flight. Still, we did have one final phone call, and I am satisfied that we said all that needed to be said.

The Breaking Of The Dawn

Fernando Ortega

There’s a slow train
Pulling through the desert
The colored cars pass quietly from sight
Between the highway and the long horizon
Precious dreams wind away with the light.

My brother’s and my sisters’ faces linger
The hours of our childhood, grave and gold
Driving through these solitary places
Memories of their gentile kinship
Touch my soul

The hawk wheels away as we pass here
The clouds billow up and fly on
Down the road some hard turns
Are going to shake us
Ride with us
Through the breaking of the dawn

I worry for my loving mother
The dimming years,
The trials she has known
Her heart so kind and so weary
Keep her safe one more night
’til I get home

How I long to be right there beside her
And bring everything back to before
We’ll arrive with the first light of morning
Keep her safe, let me hold her once more

The sage and Joshua tree remind me
Of the miles to go,
The journey that we’re on
In the still, sweet air of the desert
We will ride
Through the breaking of the dawn

If you’d like to hear Fernando sing the song, as only he can in his beautifully melodic, peaceful way, look no further than: