Two more saints...

Ysamin, Lourdes, Becca, Nancy, Mario and Bill

Two more saints...sadly

The week before Palm Sunday, we received the sad and sudden news that husband of our friend Lourdes (the mother of our Cuban-Canadian friend, Leonel) had died suddenly of a heart attack. In Cuba, when someone dies, there is no time wasted (there is no embalming and no ice to preserve the body) so burial happens within 24 hours. By the time we heard about his death, Mario was already buried.

Lourdes and Mario with Emma

We so enjoyed knowing Mario and will treasure the memory of our time getting lost in Old Havana with him, eating chocolate at the Chocolate museum and looking for churros (doughnuts).

Lee on his porch in 2011

Then on the Tuesday after Easter, I got a text message from Alan that his brother Lee had died. Lee was 52. He had lived with diabetes for a long time. A work accident in which he broke his back some ten years ago exacerbated his poor health. We felt very far away indeed. Due to David's illness, he cannot travel to the USA - a hospitalization would be prohibitively expensive for us (and our travel

insurance would not cover it). So, the day we travelled back to Canada, Alan travelled to Ohio to be with his family.

Now that we are back in Toronto, I remember Lee in all the kindnesses of ordinary life - the bowls we use daily to prepare food and the HUGE tiger that sits on David's bed.

In Cuba, Emma helped me connect and grieve by bursting into tender hearted tears. We send all our love and prayers to Alan's family. 

Sunset on the way home from Havana.