The Day of the Dead is a day of honoring, but not of mourning. It is a time to celebrate the ways in which those who are no longer with us physically are still with us in spirit—in our hearts, in memory and in how we see the world.
What words or phrases do you use that you picked up from someone who is no longer living?
My mom: No disaster without some small gain.
During the time when my friend Rachel was growing older, I spent time with her, assisting, transporting and listening. I have notes and things remembered that could make a book! One of my favorites: “HONEY,(she called everybody honey), NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, NEITHER THE GOOD NOR THE BAD.” On a slightly risqué note, when she lived in a Catholic care center as a Methodist, she would say, as we were rolling her wheelchair down the decorated hall to the dining room, “HONEY, THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF JESUSES HERE!”