Sugar Skull Reflection & Eulogy: Gianna Flego

Gianna Flego // Sugar Skull Reflection

Last year on Christmas morning, a dear family friend passed away. I remember finding out, and just breaking down in tears because I couldn’t believe I never got to say my final goodbyes. Her name was Nicole and she was 26 years old. She was short, had brown eyes that that sometimes had a hint of blue and black hair. Nicole always brought a positive vibe to a negative situation and was able to make anybody laugh or smile with her corny jokes. She had two sons, Cameron and Jason. I use to babysit them all the time over the summer. But when she was a teenager, she had a daughter but had to give her up for adoption. You can tell by her attitude that she has been through a lot throughout her whole life, but the smile always remained on her face. She was the type of person you would cry to whenever you needed someone to vent to. You would have never thought that she was in such a horrible place until the day that she passed.

I always befriend the type of people who would do anything and everything for me. That was the type of person Nicole was. The first day I met her, was 3 years ago during the summer. My mom and her were talking with their other friend on my porch one day when I came home from basketball. As soon as I met her, our personalities instantly matched. Me, her and my mom always went out to eat or shopping. Or if I didn’t go she would ask me to watch her kids. What I remember the most about Nicole was that when I had nobody to talk to, she would always swoop in and save the day. Whether it was family problems, boy issues or I just needed to talk. I went from seeing her everyday until her and my mom stopped talking, I haven’t seen her since. But the little things she always did for me is something I couldn’t forget, even if I tried.

I decided to create my sugar skull in remembrance of Nicole because she is very important to me, as you can see by what I previously said about her. Also, I’ve never experienced a tragic death in my life besides her. I think that doing the sugar skull on her was a really good idea because her personality was so crazy and nothing stopped her from being herself. On the other hand, I thought that bringing the lose of Nicole back up was a bad idea, but creating something to remember her made it easier to think about. She was also really into arts and crafts, so the glitter and paint would have made her proud of what I made.

My sugar skull reflects my friend Nicole because she was a very open minded person, who was crazy, fun and loveable. The thing that stands out the most of my sugar school is the glitter on the very top. I put glitter on the very top because what she had to say, and what she always did was so crazy. Her head was filled with crazy ideas, based off the way she already acted. The glitter represents her because she was such an open minded person. Another thing about my sugar school is the blue eyes. Nicole had really strange eyes. One moment they would be all brown and then the next they would have hint of blue. My sugar skull is kind of a mess and crazy looking, but thats just because Nicole was a blunt person. If you knew Nicole then you would completely understand why it looks the way it looks.

When I lost her, I didn’t think that my life would ever be the same without her. It was such a shock to be told that she wasn’t on this earth anymore. No laughter, happiness. Anything. Losing someone who meant so much to me was really heartbreaking. She was taken away from the world at such a young age and its a sin. She suffered enough when she was alive, so now she gets to rest easy and be at peace. Dia de los Muertos really brings an enlightenment to how I feel about her loss now. I think I should start remembering all the great times we had together instead or mourning her loss. It opens up my mind to seek for a better way to remember her, not to cry about losing her.