MI ABUELITA
- 10 May 2019
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- SUPERNATURAL
- SPIRITS
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- Acropolis De Versailles
Looking out my studio window, I saw black clouds strengthening in depth and gathering to cover the last glimpse of the full moon. The gentle rain tearing down my windowpane brought only solitude to my sadness.
It was 11:30 PM when I got the call from my sister in law. She said, "You better come to the hospital right now and say your goodbyes to Grandma- she's not going to make it." It was icy cold and raining as I drove to the hospital. I kept on wiping off the windshield just so I can see through the fog. I remember the sound of the windshield wipers; back and forth, as my eyes filled up with tears; I worried I wasn't going to make it on time. I yelled out, Jesus No! Don't let her die!
As I stopped on a red light, I noticed I was caught in a traffic jam. Waiting impatiently, I saw a blue Torino car pass by and it took me back to an old memory. Many years ago, when I was in High School, I remember having a funny conversation with my Grandma as she took me in her car to buy me a hamburger. She owned a blue turquoise metallic 1970 Ford Torino with the back wheels jacked up and fatter than the front wheels; if you can only imagine a little old lady driving a muscle car with two little white puddles in the back seat.
Grandma would say, "Getting old is a funny thing. You know you're old when you don't want to go to Disneyland anymore and if you do go, by the time you walk out of your car and stand in line just to buy the tickets, sitting somewhere becomes all you think about. Once you make it inside the park you go straight to the train ride that circles the entire park and you ride it three times before you get off. And when you get off, you make sure it drops you off where the restaurant is just so you can sit, wiggle your toes, stretch your legs and have a cup of coffee with a pastry. And after you eat you jump right back on the same train again so it can drop you off at the Abraham Lincoln show. There you know you can sit comfortably for a while and maybe get a little quick nap; especially because there's air conditioning. After that you go straight to the penny arcade and you know you're really avoiding the rides. There's no way you're going to stand two hours just to get on those crazy fast rides. It's not worth it! Just standing in line, you know your feet are going to hurt plus you didn't bring you folding chair and some of those rides give you whiplash the way they jerk; no way Jose. The only ride I might get on is the "It's a small small world." That one is calm, easy and smooth with air conditioning and you get to sit down without seat belts because it's safe. I'm telling you, old age is a funny thing."
My Grandma was really funny. She was so little she couldn't see over the steering wheel that well. She was too old to be driving- especially because her legs, hands and fingers were almost frozen from arthritis; she could barely hold the steering wheel.
As she was driving very slow, I thought she was going to create an accident. I told her, "Abuelita, you have to drive a little faster. You're creating a tail of cars behind us; people are going to get mad." She quickly responded, "I'm not going to get a ticket just for them; they're going to have to wait." I then told her, "Abuelita, if you keep on driving like this you'll get a ticket and you might create an accident." She then rolls down her window and sticks her arm out and starts waving at the cars behind us; directing them to go around and in front of us.
I noticed the car, behind us, change lanes and cut in front of us. Then the driver looks in his rear mirror and violently gives my Grandma the middle finger then speeds off. Then a second car cuts next to us; trying to pass us up, and he too flips off my Grandma and yells out a filthy word then takes off. Then a third car behind us starts flashing his lights, cuts next to us and hatefully flips off my Grandma and yells out," F you too!" Worried for our safety, I said, "Abuelita! What's going on with these evil crazy people?! Why is everyone pissed off and flipping us off!? They act like they want to kill us or something!" Then my Grandma answers, "I don't know, I'm just waving at them to pass me up." Then I glanced at my Grandma's hand; while she's still waving out the window to the car behind us and I notice her hand was all cramped up and frozen from arthritis. I said, Abuelita! Look at your hand! You look like your sticking out the middle finger at everyone!" She looked at her hand and immediately laughed and said, "Oh sh't! That's what happens when you get old; pinche arthritis!"
The car behind me honks his horn and snaps me out of my flashback. The traffic starts moving again. When I arrived at the hospital, I parked my truck on the second level of the parking structure noticing there were only a few cars there. I saw that the elevator was some distance away; I got out of my truck and quickly jogged towards it and strangely the elevator doors opened by itself. I entered the elevator thinking someone was in there but found it was empty and before I pressed the button to go down, the little light on the ground floor button lit all by itself then the doors closed. That's weird I thought.
I exit the elevator leading on a path to the hospital entrance. As I'm walking underneath a long canopy, I glanced to the right and I saw the heavy rain pouring down against the street lights; I was going to be drenched completely as I notice the canopy ended before I reached the entrance doors; I ran to the entrance of the hospital and the automatic doors opened. While I was drying my shoes on the entrance rug, I looked up and noticed the entire lobby was dark as though there might have been a power outage. The only light I could see was far back into the distance where I knew the hall way to the ER was located. Usually there's always a security guard people would have to check in with before entering but I didn't find one in sight even though I waited for short while. The lobby was completely empty and dark; now that's really weird I thought, first the elevator and now the lobby? What's going on?
I decided not to wait any further so I made my way through the lobby towards the lit hallway when suddenly out of the darkness a lady's face appears inches in front of my face. She had a big happy smile with really nice bright teeth. She looked into my eyes and said, "OH! Don't worry honey; everything is going to be just fine. You'll see! Everything is going to work out just fine. Have faith! Jesus is in control of your life! Even now he walks with you! You'll see!" I was so stunned I couldn't say anything. As she left, I turned around to look at her and noticed her black hair was braided in a long pony tail with a strange hair clip that looked familiar and then suddenly out of nowhere, three other ladies were walking with her out of the darkness of the building; they were all laughing and very happy about something. As I started to walk into the lit hallway, I stopped and thought-wait a minute, those eyes, that smile, those teeth, Oh my God! That hair clip! That's my Abuelita! She braided her hair like that when she was young! I just saw my Grandma and she looks 33 years of age! And those other ladies, they're my Aunts who died many years ago and now they're all young again! NO! I don't want that to be her! Please God! NO!
Worried and trying to hold my tears, I ran through the many hall ways in search of the ER. I passed a security guard along the way as he gave me a dirty look but I didn't care to stop and kept on looking for the ER room. I found it. I saw many of my family members; it was crowded. I didn't say anything to no one about what had just happened to me. I didn't want to believe it was my Grandma. By the time I squeeze through the crowd, the doctors where working on her trying to resuscitate her. I was too late. She died. I stared at her and finally caressed her face, her hands and kissed her forehead. The doctors never found what was wrong with her. They simply said it was old age. I had to go outside away from everyone. I found myself outside in the rain leaning against the wall of the parking structure as I yelled and cried out. The rain was falling so hard I couldn't feel my tears. I must have stood there for a half an hour and I didn't care how cold and wet it was. I stared at the street lights noticing its dim glow trying to pierce through the thick and heavy rain drops that painted the night pale grey with death. The only color I could see was coming from the corner stop light and it was flashing red. Finally I got back into my truck. As I sat there dripping wet with the keys in my hand, I glanced at the distant elevator hoping the door would open by itself again; hoping that my Abuelita would appear to me.
Author: Alex Acropolis Calderon
"She was my dear Abuelita; may she rest in peace. She lived to be 98 years old when she went to be with Jesus. She had a beautiful smile, a good sense of humor and she really didn't look her age. But the unusual experience that keeps hunting me about my Abuelita is that after she died I saw her ghost and she looked 33 years of age and she talked to me."