A Weekend of Tears

I know it has been a while since I last posted. Things have been kind of crazy. We had my grandfather's memorial on Saturday and it was good to see so many friends. If a memorial service can be considered good. It was wonderful to see family and friends whom I haven't seen in years. People were getting up and sharing memories and it was nice to hear about how people felt about Daddo. Then my Aunt Collette stood up with some of the best news.
See my grandfather was part of a sportsmans club in Brownsville, TX. A man from Mexico came and spoke about the poaching of the Kemps Ridley Sea Turtle. There was one beach in Mexico where the sea turtles would nest. People were killing them for their shells and meat, they were stealing eggs to cook up and to sell to tourists and at the time the Kemps Ridley was on the brink of extinction. My grandfather, along with his brothers went to Mexico and petitioned to have the beach protected by the Mexican governement, when that didn't work they decieded to hire some men to patrol the beach for poachers. When that still wasn't doing enough they went the next year and decided to bring as many eggs as they could to a beach in South Padre Island. They worked with Fish and Game to get the area protected. After a few years of successful hatching, the Kemps Ridley is close to coming off the Endangered Species List. How AWESOME that my family had such an important part to this. That is a legacy that I am proud of for my children.

Sunday was the viewing for our dear friend, Nelson Montalvo. It was hard. It was obvious that they had to do some reconstruction for the open casket. Jason immediately had a memorial blog post up after finding out of his passing (http://www.nelsonmontalvo.com/). That post had 52 comments on it and everyone had read it. In fact a reporter with the Express News was so impressed he wanted to write a feature obituary on Nelson. It was great and just what Nelson deserved. Jason was so strong but there were several momments where he broke down. I would ask him how he was doing, and he would just look at me and say "I miss my friend" It broke my heart. I just want to keep him from hurting. Jason has found a new friend in Nelson's brother, Armando. He and Jase have had breakfast together and just helped each other cope. They are both so similar that I think it is a good match. I hope I have found some new friends in Karen, Armando's wife, and Jean, Nelson's girlfriend. We have had time to talk and share and I hope that we continue our friendships. Nelson to the end was a man of networking. He brought people together in life, and continued it in death. He is going to be missed. After the funeral on Monday we all went back to Jean and Nelson's house for food and fellowship. It was hard but it was great to see everyone. Jean asked me to bring Bishop since Nelson and she had come to the hospital when I had him. She loved seeing him. She laughed and said that having babies around makes everything better. I was glad for that. We ended up staying till 1:30 AM. But it was time well spent. I think that we have found closure but we haven't yet found peace with his unexpected and tragic passing.
There is going to be a legal battle over reponsibility for the accident. Last night Nelson's car was towed to our friends land out by Comfort. Jason went out to be with Jean and some friends. It was amazing to see a 4 door civic crushed and compacted to a one seater car. Looing through the passenger side door you see immediately the steering wheel. It was traumatic but necessary for the healing, I hope.

I better go my little man is waking up and I feel the need to smile. Thank you for the support and love.