Today would have been my grandfather's 84th Birthday...!
Seems like a long time away from my 27th... hahaha!
What a special day it is... my grandfather was such an amazing man. It is sad that he left us all so fast, but while he was here, present with us, we enjoyed him so much.
He was the type who would sit silently to read his newspaper but every so often will share an article or phrase with you... he was a smart man. I always say that I got my "smartness" from him.
Funny story, my grandfather isn’t really my grandfather... well let me explain.
My grandma married young and had my mom, then her husband past away in a car accident very suddenly when my mom was just a year old. My grandma widowed at a very young age and she felt like all her dreams of ever having a real family were broken... little did she know God had other plans for her already.
A few years went by, my grandma worked full time as a teacher in a near by school and her mom, my great-grandmother took care of my mom. My great-grandmother also had 4 other sisters who were single and adored my mom and so she grew up surrounded by an army of loving women. She remembers those days with such happiness. When my grandma first met my grandfather the women in the family were not very pleased, he had already been married and had divorced, back in those days a divorced man was no good I guess... like he wasn’t good enough to hold one marriage what makes him good now? Thankfully slowly everyone started accepting him and they finally came to realize how sweet of a soul this man was. My mom on the other part did not welcome him into her life at all. My grandparents married when my mom was about 8 years old and in a year they had another baby, my uncle Ivan. My mom says that when my uncle finally arrived home from the hospital after been born, she was excited, very happy to have a little brother but then slowly she started realizing how things would change because of this new addition so then again she started withdrawing and feeling uneasy. As a child growing up without my dad I can totally relate to how she was feeling then.
To make the story short ... I came to know this story in full detail one day by chance. Literally... I think maybe if I hadn’t come across and old picture of my mom's birth dad and questioned everyone repeatedly about it I would have never known. I had a bad tendency to look all over my grandmother's belongings growing up... I would find all kinds of things…and the stories behind them were amazing! (I will share more later on). One day I discovered his picture… his name was Juan Rios and he was very handsome. At first I thought he was an actor and my grandma has kept his picture because she had a secret crush on him, but then when I read his name on the bottom of the picture I started wondering and putting 2 and 2 together. I was about 7 years old. I started thinking... my mom's name is ADA RIOS, but my uncle's name is IVAN FORS... my grandpa's name is REGINALDO FORS... so where does my mom get RIOS from...? WHY AM I RIOS AND NOT FORS... hmm that was where it all began. I think it took me easily like a week to finally get my grandma to tell me the full story; she was hesitant, now I understand why.
I took it very well... well considering I cried for a couple of days and didn’t want to see anyone... I was confused...it was also hard seen my grandpa, Cuco so sad those days. When my grandma told him she had told me the story the look on his face was ... so sad... it broke my heart.
I got over it a couple of days later and then went on to pin pointing everything that Cuco and I had in common, how we almost looked alike and I shared his smartness… so really this made him my real grandad after all… who cares about blood! its the love from within, straight from the heart that really matters.
Oh! and the funny thing about this whole story is that my granddad Cuco(I gave him that nickname, I forget why) had a birth mark on his right thigh...and one day while in the showered I discovered I had THE SAME mark on THE SAME SPOT...=) so God somehow managed to given us that to share, forever! I love my Cuco, Rest in Peace abuelito.. TE AMO. Feliz Cumpleaños!
