Día de los Muertos

I don't know what he means to me really. I only remember him four times my whole life where I would visit him in the summer to go down to North Carolina. My brother and sister remember so much about him like his eye color and what he used to always wear, but I didn’t. His passing reminds me of what happens in my life. How I can spend so much time doing something or being with someone and not knowing who they really are. Uncle Williford means a piece of my life to me that has gone with him. Something that I can’t take back because it passed away with him. He was always kind to my mom and family whenever we came over.   During his funeral, I was the only one that didn’t cry because I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t bring up anything that will make me cry for someone I lost in my life. I feel bad for doing this project because I know people who have lost their mother or father or someone really important to them and yet here I am saying that I felt nothing over my great uncle's death.

I decided to make my sugar skull on him because he was the only family member I could think of that passed. Also, I never really connected with anyone outside my immediate family family if that makes any sense. My sugar skull has features I know about the person like the face is brown because he was brown skinned. I made the eyes red around with red, blue, and white which is suppose to be Chucky which was the first horror movie I watched that was at his house. There is some green on the skull because he owned acres of land and also built his own house. Black on his teeth because my sister had said that she saw him put on denchers once. In his mouth are supposed to be noodles because he had lots of ramen noodles in his house.

“Dia de los Muertos” opened my mind into seeing different ways people commemorate the dead and the sugar skull part of it really helps with letting go of that person you lost. Dia de los Muertos, also isn’t about letting them go completely since it’s a yearly thing where as a funeral is a one time thing and you may put flowers down from time to time on their grave. The actual physical sugar skull also give a metaphorical meaning to the person for example, for my great uncle I put a googley eye on the top of his forehead. This is referring to the “all seeing eye” seen on the dollar bill which relates to him because he would always use to catch us doing something sneaky like stealing oreos or he was always watching over his plants and animals on his farm. On the back of my sugar skull is white because of the things I don’t remember about him or that I know about him. The orange hair on top of the skull’s head is representing Chucky where his hair was orange. Since he lived down in North Carolina and we would visit him in the summer and in the summer there is a lot of polin. My nose is colored red because it represents a red nose from allergies and what comes out the nose is snot which is colored green all around my mouth. Metaphors like those can be seen on my skulls that can only make sense to me and no one else.

I honestly have nothing else to say about my Uncle Williford that passed away. It’s sad really because if it were (god forbid) my mom, brother, or sister I could go on forever for my paper, but the fact that I don’t have any other words to say is evident that I don’t remember or had a strong connection with him. The Sugar Skulls made me realize that one person if creative can have so much that represents that person on one skull. In the end, my uncle has been the piece in my life I can never get back or the memories I’ve had and never will get back.  

Eulogy

Quién Soy? Yo soy Adán Bennett. Yo soy nacido y criado en oeste Philadelphia. Hasta donde yo sé mi vida es apenas comienzo. Pero sí sé este un futuro aguarda. Williford Lewis Hart era mi tío abuelo. Nacido sobre tres de julio mil novecientos treinta y uno. El era el noveno hijo de doce hijos. Tío Williford era un perezoso mayor hombre. Él tenía verde ojos. Él era un soldado quien pelear en guerra. Yo estoy en mi casa. Yo estoy muy cansado. Y triste porque yo no sabía lo bien, entonces yo estoy muy triste.  En conclusión mi tío Williford es un buen hombre. Aunque yo no acordarse mucho de hombre. Nosotros aún tenemos unos conexión.