Tag: Grief
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Musings on My Mother’s 98th Birthday
Saturday, October 17, 2026 – Orlando, Florida “I can pinpoint that as the single happiest moment of my life, because I realized then that Mom would always have my back. It made me feel giant. I raced back down the concrete ramp, faster than I ever had before, so fast I should have fallen, but…
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More October Reveries
Friday, October 16, 2026 – Orlando, Florida Tomorrow would have been my mom’s 98th birthday. My feelings about that are, well, complicated. She died 11 years ago in the South Florida townhouse we had called home for more than 37 years, after a long and painful struggle with dementia, depression, kidney problems, and the other…
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July 19: Remembering My Mother Amid Political Turmoil
Afternoon, Saturday, July 19, 2025 – Miami, Florida It’s a quintessential summer day in South Florida—sunny skies, no thunderstorms looming, and a heavy, palpable heat that clings to everything. At 91°F (33°C) with humidity hovering at 64%, the “feels like” temperature is a sweltering 101°F (38°C). For anyone who doubts the effects of climate change,…
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Papi, I Hardly Knew Ye….
Today would have been my father’s 102nd birthday. Had Jeronimo Diaz-Granados not been killed in a plane crash on the morning of February 13, 1965, who knows how many birthdays he would have celebrated with Mom, my older half-sister Vicky, and me. Would Dad – or Papi – have lived to be 102? I doubt…
