Friday, August 19, 2011

The Fabulous Fuoco Siblings

It seems like I have been grieving for longer than I can remember; grieving over illness, over loss, and now, death. In the last two months, I have lost two relatives I was exceptionally close to. My aunt and my uncle have passed into the infinite, into the space between spaces and are, at the least, together.

Some people believe that the afterlife is a manifestation of what we want here on earth. I like to think that's true. Like the things and places we loved most, the people we were closest to, are the things we experience when we are no longer restrained in our bodies.

So here are where Joe and Linda are now.

A world traveler, my aunt loved the tropics, so right now, she's chilling on the shores of Belize or the Bahamas, a pina colada in her hand, a book in her lap. She's making friends with everyone, in the way that she did, inviting them into conversation in the easiest way.

My uncle is young again, and back in playing form. He's swinging away on the Pebble Beach links and after his game, he will kick back with a glass of single malt scotch. Family and laughter were so important to these siblings, so they'll do what they did here: they will meet for martinis, play marathon canasta games, where they will discuss family, friends and everything else. And they will do what the Fuocos do best; gossip,  love, laugh, joke, and laugh some more.