Our belongings what happens to them once we are gone?
I started writing this blog after I read an article about "Can't take it with you".....I thought about my parents, Jose Cruz Gonzalez Jr & Beatrice Campos Gonzalez, They worked all of their life. As I write this I am glancing at their wedding picture I have in my library room and next to it I have a family portrait of our family that was taken in or around 1964...I was about 5 yrs old.
left to right is JC\Ricky\my father
Dennis\my mom\me\Norma\Oscar
My parents built their business in a small town (Robstown Texas) a grocery store and made money ...Robstown was a cotton picking town (seriously) and his store was right in front of the Cotton gin. I remember the long line of loaded trucks full of cotton,he had customers day and night. My parents made 1 million dollars in 1959...ah the year I was born and continued to make money, my father invested his money in several stocks (he was 1 of 12 Mexican -Americans who were the original owner's of KORO, a Mexican TV channel). He opened up another grocery store and later down the years opened a liquor store. We lived next to the business in a large house..I remember my mothers beige round sofa and the cherry wood panels that covered every wall in in the living room. It was beautiful.
My parent's worked 24\7 never taking a day off..We had several nannies that would help my mom, Lola and Lupita who we would call mommy lola and lupita del rancho because she lived at a ranch. I loved them both I guess we all did (my brothers and sister). My mother would get up around 6am drive to pick up mommyLola or Lupita to help in making breakfast and getting us ready for school ( my dad would open the store around 6am) mom would drive us to school and then help my father at the store. She would pick us up after school and take us to our football practice\ballet class or whatever we had scheduled. Once she arrived at home she would drink her 2 beers.....(her vitamins as our family called it) she would take a nap, she would tell one of us "wake me up in 30 minutes".....what we now call a Power nap..she would do this every day...once up she would start preparing dinner. We rarely ate out (we would order take out on the weekends) and off she went to the store to help until 10 pm. She would come home and made sure we all went to sleep and dad would close the store around 10:30 -11pm and on the weekend until 12-1am.
My parents rarely took a vacation\went to a fancy restaurant\go out with friends\go to a movie or go out drinking. They always worked............I remember saying to them I do not want to own my business.
I woke up this morning thinking about my mother in her Struggles\Saving\Sacrifice.
What my mother struggled with....4 boys, 2 girls, husband,the business!!!!!
I hear my adult children say I'm tired, I have too much to do, and they have no kids except for Ed....yea they do have full time jobs...Eddie and Steven work in the oil field and Marisa is a jewelry designer for Fossil and they complain .......
My mother was a SUPER WOMAN...and when she died in 1999 everything else died with her..including a little bit of me
It was the end of a ERA..she was the one who kept us all together my brothers and sister, Once she died it seemed that we went our separate ways...we all isolated each other...2 of my brothers helped my father in the business . I worked and lived in Corpus Christi about 30 minutes from Robstown and trying to raise 2 kids (Marisa and Steven-Ed was in the military) attending college it was difficult to see my father every day. My father passed away in 2004.
I think about the struggle in my mother's life --before she died she became very depressed my sister would tell her WHY you have everything you want.......I knew what was wrong back then.....my father continued to work after my mother became ill and I think and still feel that my father should have taken time to spend with her......That was my main argument with my father... When I went to my parents house after they both died it was a experience for me.I saw several NO I mean about 30 black trash bags full of their stuff......I went looked at each bag and found clothes with tags and shoes in boxes that my mother never wore, , new clothes for my father he never wore . I walked through each room and I remember the dreams that my mother had when they bought this house (we lived next to the business up until 1973 and my father bought a house on an acre on the other side of town ) and I can still remember the day I walked into my parents home WHAT A MESS ----All I wanted to do was walk away ,but I could not let my mothers belongings be thrown in the trash ..its like she did not exist ---tears rolled down my face that day and as write this, tears are rolling down my face.
I now think about my mothers struggle\saving\sacrifice for what ???? everything that they owed were in BLACK TRASH BAGS..
Did they really enjoy the fruits of their labor?
NO I do not think so!!!!
When we were young yes-- we enjoyed their fruits of their labor...I do not remember my parents ever saying No if I asked for something..I do not think I was spoiled..I had what I needed.
Yes My parents were very FRUGAL , but why??
If you knew my father you would never think ---that he was RICH !!!! no way!! He drove an old beat up truck ..but my mother always had a new car every year, my dad would buy her a Delta 88 ..but just to take us to school and the shopping center they never went out ......
My view of Life changed when my mom and my sister died (2001)....
Life is too short...
Wear that special dress, Use that great perfume that cost a couple of hundred dollars, Take that short weekend vacation , Take out those special plates and use them daily, I DO
I enjoy my life there is no time like the present to make the best of every moment count.
Indulge-----enjoy your fruits of your labor----I DO
Because at the end it might end up in several black trash bags!!!
and you are probably wondering what happen to all the MONEY
that will be my next blog!!!!!
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