On Friday
September 21st, my host aunt MariLu who lived down the street from
us was killed in a car accident. The driver of the car fell asleep on the 3.5
hour drive from Huallanca to Huaraz. My host uncle and two little cousins were also
in the car and thankfully everyone else survived. My 4 year old little host
cousin broke his femur in the accident. Aunt MariLu left behind a husband and
four children ages 3, 4, 17, and 19. Obviously her death has been and will
continue to be a huge tragedy and loss for my Peruvian host family. When a
death occurs in small towns in the Sierra of Peru, there are some traditions
and customs that are followed. The body is brought in the coffin to the house
so that people can spend time mourning over the lost one. For four days our
house was filled with hundreds of people mourning the loss of MariLu. We spent hours chopping vegetables, killed five sheep (literally) and made more soup than you’ve ever
seen in your life, we cooked rice and potatoes and buttered crackers to serve
and made gallons and gallons of instant coffee for all the family and guests.
Aunt MariLu’s coffin sat in our house for four days and people cried and
mourned and ate food and comforted each other. Our house was full of family,
neighbors and people from near and far who came to say goodbye to MariLu.
Nobody slept. All night people sat around her coffin and mourned (it was an
open casket). People smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, and chewed cocoa leaves.
On the fourth day after her death, family members carried MariLu’s coffin
around town so she could “say goodbye” to her town and her house. We paraded
around town with the coffin, a band playing sad music and hundreds of people all
dressed in black and then entered into the Catholic Church in the plaza where
her funeral was held. After the funeral, we paraded up to the cemetery to bury
her as hundreds of people crowded around to watch and say goodbye. After seeing the traditions of what a small town in the Sierra does when someone dies, I was really amazed at how so many people dropped their lives and came together to support one
another and help our family out. May Aunt MariLu rest in peace and may our
family and community members help to raise her little children who are now without
a mother.
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| How the coffin was displayed in our house |
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| Taking her coffin around to say goodbye to Huallanca |
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| Tea my host grandma was drinking that is suppose to cure a "sad heart". |
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| Where we cooked more soup than you could ever imagine for all the people who were at our house for aunt MariLu's death. |
The day
after aunt MariLu was killed, my host mom gave birth to my new baby sister, Luciana Cardenas Rojas (They are still deciding on a middle name). Death and birth all in nearly the same day in our family...talk about a mix of emotions! My mom gave birth at the hospital in Huaraz (about 3 hours from Huallanca). I was planning to go to be present at the birth but with everything going on in the family with my host aunt's death, I ended up staying in Huallanca and helping out with the family. My baby sister Luciana is so precious and I am SO excited to be a part of the first two years of her life!
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| My baby sister Luciana! |
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| The family excited and meeting the baby for the first time when she came home from the hospital. |
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| My little sister Melany (age 11) meeting her new baby sister for the first time. |
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| Holding Luciana for the first time! |
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| She is so precious :) |
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| I had LOTS of family time during the days that the entire family spent at our house for the death of our aunt |
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| Family time :) I love my host family!! |
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