Good-bye Sister Nieves

My Tita Hermy died last Sunday. She was 85. My Dad has two sisters and both became nuns, Sr. Nieves and Sr. Trinitas, both with the ICM order.

When she was younger, Sr. Nieves had worked a lot in Bontoc and the nuns talked about how a delegation from there was expected to arrive for the funeral tomorrow. When I was much younger, Tita Hermy had been one of the older ladies who taught me Scrabble.

I was able to make it to the wake just tonight, directly from work. Her elder sister, Sr. Trinitas, was seated in an anteroom having dinner. When I went up to greet her, my Dad asked her if she recognized me.

She said, "yes of course," but in her eyes I could tell the mental Rolodex was having trouble connecting my face to a name.

"It's Dennis, Tita Carmeling," I volunteered.

"Of course, of course. Your cravat is very nice, like the colors I see on TV."

I was wearing a fuschia tie, which T had bought for me in Rome. It was so loud that it had elicited undue mirth during our usual somber Mancom meetings earlier.

So now two of my Dad's siblings have passed away this year. Only three of the original seven siblings are alive, two having passed away two years ago.