Power of 3

What do we 3 have in common?
* 3 generations of Hernandez
* All 3 with curly hair
* Stubborn and strong-willed
* Have a love affair with chocolates
* All 3 born in the month of June
* Fierce loyalty to family

I am very honored to be part of this family.  My grandmother, Corazon, is one of my inspirations in life and love.  Here was a woman, born with a silver spoon but had to fight for herself and her family at a very young age.  Married at 19, widowed at 30.  Life was not easy with 4 children (3 girls and a boy) and she never got to finish college since the war broke out.

Since then, people have known Lola as a woman who was strong and a fighter.  Be it for God, family and friends.  Race and status were of no value to her.  She taught me simplicity and class at the same time.  How to be a proper lady and how to work with the boys.

Whenever I feel weak and discouraged, I look at her and the fire that still burns inside her.  She is not easily fooled.  She can be like a hawk, watching over her young.  She ruled with an iron rod (or a wooden stick as far as my father is concerned) and her discipline impeccable. 

But she was also the woman who taught me to believe in myself and God first and foremost.  Her motto is the passage "To live is Christ and to die is gain."  She would always tell me, "Hija, whats done for Christ will last."  Pastors would come to her from all over to seek assistance.  But they all had to go through rigid tests.  She was no fool.  Her foundation, Jesus Christ Foundation, has helped pastors with their churches and family.  Pastors from all over know her and her support.  

Whenever I would get sick, she would massage my head and cook me soup.  Her cooking is legendary.  She can sew and does so with her clothes, beddings and curtains.  I treasure the night dress she made for me when I gave birth.  The most comfortable pieces of clothing I own.

Lola Cora raised me most of my life and I will be forever in debt to her.  As her years slowly move on and is presently in her 90s, she is physically not the lady she used to be.  The fight is still in her eyes but her body deceives her.  She takes it very hard these days.  She gets so frustrated when she fails to remember names.  She complained to me today that she barely sleeps and keeps thinking of so many things.

She really has not been the same since her slip that broke her leg.  We had to have her operated and implanted with a metal rod.  For her age, she healed wonderfully and beyond the doctor's expectations.  But she hasn't been her old self since.  Which pains me  so much.

I do get sad by the fact that I can't be by her side as I used to be before I was married.  Iloilo seems so far away these days.  Talking to her on the phone only makes things difficult since she stammers now and can't hear as well.

But the times we spend with her and Dani, I try to cherish even more.  I vowed to take more pictures of them together.  So that when the time does come, I can tell Dani about her and how she has been in my life.

"Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
Only what's done for Christ will last."

" I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." - Genesis 17:7

"For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations." - Isaiah 51:8