I would like to introduce you to my grandparents – Lucretia and Ricardo Ronase. I would have loved for everyone that visits this site or that knows me to have gotten the chance to meet them in person. If you did, you would probably see where the weird sense of humor, hospitality and generaly kindness that my family inherited had come from. Grandpa would have probably asked you if you were hungry or if you wanted a drink. After saying that you were fine and didn’t need anything, he would promptly return 3 minutes later with a glass of coke for you. Grandma would then chastise you for not eating and then look at you and give you a sly smile and laugh while nudging you towards the kitchen.

My grandmother passed away today at 3:45pm EDT in Norfolk, Va. I got word of it this evening from my eldest sister. She calmly called me and let me know that grandma had finally passed.

The picture you see here is one that was found in the Philippines. My parents and my sister brought it back in 1999 after their first trip back. The said that they found the picture behind an air conditioning unit and it had suffered a lot of damage. If you could see the original you would see that it was dated in the in the early half of the 20th century. During those days they would paint on top of the pictures to add some excitement to the picture.

If I look at it long enough I can see the faces of my sisters, my mom and my aunts in my grandma’s face. I can see my uncle and my cousins in my grandfather’s face. Funny how these old pictures can help you make those kinds of connections. You can see an entire famly in this image. We have other pictures in our family; pictures of my grandparents throughout the years. I’m just lucky that to have this one.

Here’s the weird part: when our grandpa died we were all in shock and disbelief. He was the first of our family who immigrated to the United States to die on American soil. His health had declined over the years and he started to suffer from Alzheimers near the end. But the last time I saw him alive he recognized me and he cried. In fact, we all cried knowing that it was probably the last time that those of us who moved to Northern Virginia might get to see him. We took pictures then, attempting to savor that moment in time. Me, my wife, my sisters and my mother surrounding this frail, forgetful, crying old man. When he died it truly was a sense of loss.

When I got word that grandma died, the sense of loss was still there but it was tinged with something else: happiness. My grandma finally got to be with my grandpa. My sister told me that during their last trip the the Philippines my grandma would go outside by herself and talk to the sky. She would thank God that she was able to go home one more time and see where she grew up and raised her family. My sister also thought that she was talking to my grandpa. Deep down, we believe that grandma knew that her time was coming soon, too.

Good-bye, Grandma. Thank you for everything. I’m glad that you’ll be with grandpa now because I know that, even though you’ve been surrounded by family for the past year and a half, you were lonely without him. I will miss you both with all my heart. I just wish that I had more time to tell the both of you while you were alive.