This is the 40th installment of “Old Pueblo Abuelo,” a thought on positive things happening in the Old Pueblo from a sometimes cranky and often times humorous grandfather actually born in Tucson and writing from my desk in Tucson, the Old Pueblo.
If you are lucky enough to live a long life, there comes a point where you become the caregiver for your parents until, one day, you feel their heart beat one last time and you hear their last breath, just like they felt your heart pound for the first time and heard your first cry. Life doesn’t always work out that way for many reasons because life simply doesn’t always work.
There also comes a point where you say goodbye to friends your parents held dear, ones you’ve known since you were a child. Children always think their parents are old until the child reaches a certain age and then you realize the parents were actually young all along. My father passed away in 2010 and it was a rich life, full of sacrifice for others and he set a template for those who followed. His friend, the late Raúl Grijalva, said upon my father’s death that he showed the Hispanic community leadership how to be “unapologetic” in who they are. Amen…