I am in the unbearable process of living while losing the most significant person in my life. And I realize that sometimes a lifetime is just not enough. At 85 she was still the valiant, strong willed, determined and loving mother that she always was. Her mission in life was to give my brother and I a better one away from all of the insanity and inhumanity that Cuba became. That little country girl from Puerto Padre with barely a 4th grade education  envisioned the promised land for us. So at around the age of 26, with her two little boys, me at 18 months old and my brother at 5 left for New York City. She left behind everything: her mother, sisters, her imprisoned husband and everything she had ever known. She struggled, she thrived and she did it all over again as many times as she had to in order to survive the harshness of the new world. My hero, my queen, my mima is gone. The enormity of this loss is overwhelmingly unfathomable. I had been “preparing” myself for the inevitable now for a few years. Since her Alzheimer’s diagnosis at around the start of the pandemic, I became her main care giver. As bumpy and as cruel as it sometimes was, I wanted to give her the respect and love she so much deserved. I understood the cycle of life and I accepted it. She was forever our rock and our fortitude. She loved her two boys and gave her life for us, never remarried. She was stunningly beautiful and that’s not an exaggeration. She loved her Cuba and she loved her family. She loved her house and I know she loved life itself. Thank you mima, I am completely heartbroken but I am extremely proud to know that in this lifetime I was given the gift to be your son. I will love you for as many lifetimes as I am given and I will honor you until my last dying breath.