Our son Ed's farewell words:

Tonight we remember the life of Delia Piñero, Abuela, Yeya.

I’m not the most religious person here, but I do know that Our Lord promises us Life after Death in the Kingdom of Heaven .  All of us who knew her, have we even a mustard seed of faith, know that she is now in the care of the Lord, in a life beyond any physical pain or ailment.  We should feel great joy in knowing this, and yet we feel pain.  We all mourn, not because she has gone to a more joyous place, but because we are all left behind without her.  I believe the pain we feel is the pain of letting her go.

The prayer of St. Francis says, “Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted - to understand, than to be understood - to love, than to be loved.  For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.”  Yeya was the best example of this that I have ever known.

As one of her grandchildren, I have spent my entire life spoiled by her.  Spoiled in her unconditional love.  When I behaved sweet, she loved me.  When I was a brat, she still loved me.  When I was sad, she loved me.  When I was happy, she loved me.  She loved me when I was near, and she loved me from afar.  She loved me when I was asleep, she loved me when I was awake, and she especially loved me when I was hungry.  Whenever I have been lost in my own life, I’ve always had her love.  And when you have love like that, you can always find your way back on track again.

When I was a child, she would make lunch for all six of us grandchildren, making each grandchild their favorite meal.  As long as I never tired of eating Macaroni and Cheese, she never tired of making it.  When we slept over, she would make all six beds, and then she’d be very quiet in the morning and keep the house dark, until we were all finally up.  Then she would spend the entire day cleaning up after us as we spent the day building fortresses out of sheets, or painting, or swimming.

I loved to make her laugh.  More than anyone else in this world, I loved to make her laugh.  It is one of the sweetest joys I have ever known in this world.  Perhaps it was because it was so easy to do.  Perhaps it was also because she was so sweet that you could play a gag on her, and drag it on for hours before you let her in on it.

For example, Abuela had a collection of Snow Village ceramic houses set up.  Well, before we had all given her an entire Village, there was just a house, and before there was even a house, there were trees.

Before Abuela had any Snow Village pieces, there was a comida de Noche Buena and the entire family was gathered at the Piñero’s house.  We were getting ready to sit down for a long dinner, but before we all started, we grandkids told Abuela that we had a present for her.  She was so excited as she opened the little present, and we all hovered around grinning mischievously.  When she finally opened it, she found this tiny, little 4” stick with some green fuzz on one end.  She had no idea what it was.  “Te gusta, Yeya?” we asked. “Mira, que lindo.  Me encanta.”  And we all laughed, and we didn’t even tell her what it was.  Then, later in the dinner, we told Abuela that we had another present for her.  Again she was excited and again she opened the little present to find another 4” stick with green fuzz.  “Mira que lindo, idéntico como el otro.”  We all laughed even harder this time.  Throughout the dinner we kept telling her that they were earrings, or little brushes to clean with.  Then with dessert we gave her another present, and this time inside was a 6” stick with green fuzz.  “Gracias, niños.  Me encantan todos.”  We all laughed so hard that we had tears in our eyes.  She never let us see that she didn’t know what they were.

Then finally, after dinner, we gave her a final gift.  This was a bigger box and inside was her first Snow Village house.  When Abuela saw that the gifts we had given her were trees for the house, and she understood why we had been laughing all that time, she laughed really hard with us for a long time and she was so happy.

Another funny thing about Noche Buena at their house was that for years, Yeya would spend the entire dinner running back and forth to the kitchen getting any and every possible item from the kitchen.  In later years, we kept trying to make her stay at the table, and let someone else run to the kitchen, but she would always refuse.  We would beg and plead with her, but she would still spend the entire dinner running back and forth.  That was until one of the grandkids had the brilliant idea that if Abuela was going to stand up to get us something from the kitchen, then we would all stand up and not sit back down until she had returned and sat back down herself.  Not only did this work, but also I must admit that I truly enjoyed watching her in turmoil over wanting to get up and get us something, but wanting us to enjoy our meal peacefully even more.

Each of us grandchildren has countless stories like these.  I suppose that is part of what tonight is about—to share these stories.  And in these stories, I think we will continue to celebrate that love that she had for all of us.

For myself, I think what amazes me most about Abuela’s life was that she was someone who had very difficult times throughout her life, having been separated from her two children for a long period of time. Then with Abuelo, she had to leave all their belongings behind at a golden time in their lives, and come to a new country with a new language, to start over again from scratch.  From this, she had every reason to be bitter, or to resent the Lord, yet she was not.  Perhaps she was even more resolute in her faith as a result.

In all of my life, I have never heard her speak badly about anybody, and she was very nonjudgmental.  She was a generous person, and she prayed for us all constantly.  She was more loving towards all than anybody I have ever known.  In short, she was of service.  She was of service to us, and of service to God.

We will always carry her love and our memories of her in our hearts as long as we live.  Hopefully, we will remember her less in our minds and more in our actions.  For what better way to honor her life, than to allow ourselves to be affected by it, to strive to be more like her?  Delia Piñero’s life was a life to be inspired by; it was a life that surely made God smile.