In Loving Memory....

Our cousin Roman passed away this Saturday. My father and uncle just got back from a trip where they thanked a saint for allowing my cousin Roman to live to be 19 years old. This saint kept her promise and he lived until the last day of his 19th year. He passes away in the early morning, one day before Easter, one day before his birthday. Our family will never be the same. I tried to go about a normal Saturday morning after I heard the news. But with tears in my eyes all I could think about was the hurt and tears that I knew every single family member was feeling. We had lost one of our own. Even though we knew the lose was coming, the pain is still so strong and so deep. I could imagine the hearts of my Tio's, Tia's and cousins crumbling as they each got the call. As they heard the words that we knew one day would be uttered, "Roman passed away". I heard the news from my aunt herself and I tried to imagine the pain she was feeling despite the strong facade she had. What she must be going through. I looked at The Phi, and the pain was just unbearable. My family is a team, a unit, a force. It started with 2 people, my Nana and Tata, who fell in love and had 9 children. From there you were lucky if you were born or married into this force of a family. We love each other with something so deep and true no matter what. Despite petty arguments, misunderstandings, and even though because of age, or proximity or interests, some are closer than others, in the end we are all one family who stands together. We lost one of our own. And we cry because we miss Roman already. We cry because we lost him to a disease that had no cure, something that even all of us together could not beat. We cry because it is not fair and he did not deserve this. We cry because even though Roman now has no pain and is at peace, we have lost one of our own.