The hauntings of Abuela

There is a dear, dear woman in DH's family that I didn't get to know as much as I'd have liked to. Mostly because she didn't speak a lick of English. For awhile I wrote her updates on our family and letters of encouragement and prayer and had them translated online. They probably said something to the effect of "Your goat is doing well the cheese is growing fast, me love you long time" but my MIL, who is fluent in both Spanish and English, said they were worded correctly.

When she passed on it was really hard for my husband. His family followed the Matriach structure and when his Abuela moved in with them she ruled the roost most of the time. She had the final say. The kids thought of her as "base" because when mama was pissed off they just ran into Abuelas room and hid behind a chair where she overrode mama's authority. I couldn't do that but it's a different culture and Abuela helped them selflessly so my MIL could fully support her 4 kids.

OK so let's get to the funny snarky stuff shall we? DH's family is er, well, very amusing. I love them to death and they're the big family I always wished I had but the drama and torture and craziness - wow! My head spins sometimes while I'm there. I'm known as the quiet one. Well OK, I'm known as the big bre@sted quiet one if you want to just be frank here. These people talk about bre@st and pen!s size while we're chowing down on pirogi and kielbasi - it's just WRONG! OK, I'm getting off tangent again.

So after dear Abuela died, (to be loved and adored and called "dear" even after beating the kids with a frying pan is quite a woman lemme tell ya), his Cuban-Irish-Polish-Italian (somehow each side is VERY deep in their roots) family started relaying stories about how Abuela had been haunting them. One sister is convinced Abuela keeps turning up her thermostat. Another says she misplaces things. My MIL talks to her in a box in the spare bedroom.

Yesterday we found out the reason we didn't have water pressure in the kitchen for a few days was because the valve under the sink was shut off. The plumber said he had to use a wrench to put it back on. Neither DH or I remembers doing it. The kids physically couldn't do it. The mice, although conniving little bastards couldn't get their little rodent paws around it. So, I joked to DH that maybe Abuela did it. Dead people make convenient scapegoats! We had a good laugh.

DH told his mom today what we said about Abuela. She said, dead serious, "I'll see if I can talk to her about leaving you guys alone".

Maybe Abuela enlisted Elvis's help because you'd have to be mighty strong to shut that valve off. I'm sorry but if I'm in heaven worshipping the Lord and I take a break to shut my grandsons hot water valve off, I don't think God would find that amusing. Or maybe He would, maybe He'd help. Who knows.