Planting Aunt Helen's Ashes around the Tree of Life in Harlem, USA (399 hits)
My cousins and I scattered my Aunt Helen's ashes in Mt. Morris Park today @ 2pm. Mt. Morris/Marcus Garvey Park very lovely. Actually we carefully placed the ashes around a special tree in the park that my cousin Lou had selected yesterday. This tree stood out not just because it was alone in a central location but we figured it must be at least 100 years old.
Probably was there when Aunt Helen was a little girl. Louis dug a hole and buried some of the ashes and we each took turns spreading the ashes around the tree. Of course being the family wordsmith they had me say a few words, hopefully they were the right words. At least my cousins who attended felt I said the right words. Not much of a ceremony but a tribute all the same to a wonderful woman who touched the lives of everyone she met.
My Aunt Helen, Aunt Thelma, Aunt Eva and my Daddy all grew up in Harlem. Helen Louise Palmer Garcia is now back to her home, her roots.
Afterwards I explored 125th Street. Had not been there in ages. When my grandmother was alive I remember my Dad taking my brother and I to her apartment on weekends. However once she passed away around 1965/66 we seldom if every returned. Once I got older I went to Harlem on my own since I wanted to see the place where the Harlem Renaissance took place. I recall passing the YMCA where Langston Hughes stayed, walking the same streets as Zora Neale Hurston. Amazing! In my mind I always imagined that I was secretly part of that salon, those writers and artists, who gave Harlem Landmark status.
Harlem has a warmth, realness, and energy all its own. Wish I could afford to live in one of those beautiful brownstones. Actually I wish I could live in any one of the various buildings my aunts and father lived in from the early 1900s until the 1950s. Perhaps if I pray hard enough and click my heels together three times I'll be transplanted back in time as I walk through the facade of a special brownstone on 125th Street & Lenox Avenue.
