Dia de los Muertos

The person that passed away is my great grandmother on my mother’s side of my family, Ophalie Bonner Bennett. She was born November 11th, 1930 and she died December 14th 1999, a week after I was born.  She was a very loving person to everyone around her, especially to her grandchildren ( my mother and uncles). She was a strong mother of 6 children. She had 5 children while she was married but then her husband left her while she was pregnant with their 6th child for an unknown reason. But she found a way to independently survive and raise her 6 children by herself after her ex husband left. She worked as a seamstress in a factory and always encouraged her kids to go to college after they graduated. Her favorite line was “be better than I was”. Even though I never got she is my role model because she worked so hard without complaint for the people she loved. I am amazed that she was able to raise six kids alone who to my knowledge have never been to jail and have decent jobs. For example one is a teacher and one is a police officer.

This person is my mother’s grandmother and my great-grandmother so she is a very important part of my history. She means alot to me because I never got to see her and experience first hand what a loving person she was. I will always want to meet anyone who was apart a positive contributing part of my family and that was what she was according to all of my family who knew her.

I decided to create my sugar skull and mask in remembrance of her because my grandmother was one of the most recent people to die that was closest to me. Also, she sounded like a great person and the fact that she independently raised 6 children made her one of my role models. I am very proud to call her my grandmother and I think she should always be remembered positively and I like the idea of broadening my horizons. So instead of doing a traditional funeral like mourning session I like decorating things in a pretty way to represent her because she was a pretty person.

My skull reflects my grandmother because it is shows some of her features and characteristics. For example, my skull sits on a white foam paper with a red heart border to represent that she was full of love and that love surrounded her because she was a loving person. She was loving because she always invited the people on her block to come in and have some food. Whenever her family came over, despite her lack of a lot of money and six kids, she always fed them.  I also put black and white fur and feathers on her hair to represent her hair but I gave her a little more white than she had to represent how wise she was. I also painted the entire skull brown, except for the teeth, to represent her dark brown skin color.  Also, behind the skull on the white paper and inside the heart that is surrounding it is my grandmother’s name “Ophalie Bennett” because that is her name and I think it's a pretty name. She also has a flower on her head because I wanted to show that she was a woman and always beautiful inside and out like a flower. My mask has blue,white and black teeth because she was born and raised most of her life in North Carolina so I wanted to use North Carolina’s colors to show that. Most of the mask is colored brown to show her brown skin color. These is also the color red and glitter to represent that she was a girl. Then the mask is colored with a lot of green and white because those were her favorite colors.

“Dia de los Muertos” has opened my mind up to celebrating the passing of loved ones because it makes it easier to remember your loved one without being so sad about it. I like the idea of celebrating their life versus mourning their death because you can’t take away that they are dead but you can always remember why you loved them so much. I also liked how the video we watched in class about “Dia de los Muertos” showed that these were so many colors and food when remembering their loved one.

Spanish Eulogy

Wevideo Link: https://www.wevideo.com/hub/#media/ci/510734169

Panegirico

Buenas tarde, damas y caballeros. Mi nombre es Alexus y yo soy Ophalie’s bisnieta.  Aunque, yo no llego a conocer a (her), ella fue una persona increíble y modelo.

Ella era de Carolina del Norte y mudarse a filadelfia cuando ella (had) doce (years). Ella fuimos a Gratz High School en Filadelfia.

Ella trabaja (in) una fábrica como costurera.  Ella fue una madre soltera con seis hijos.  

Ella fue muy independiente y fuerte. Ella fue muy cariñoso y generosa.

Yo vivo en el noreste de filadelfia y ella viejo casa es en Oeste Filadelfia.   Pero de ella sepultura es más cerca a mi en Noreste Filadelfia.

Yo era nunca muy triste por de ella muerte porque yo nunca conocí ella.  Yo tengo encanta la conocí ella mi bisabuela. Me hubiera conocer a mi bisabuela. Pero desde entonces no puedo, quisiera decir te amo aunque no te conocía me.