Katelynn Jasmine Vessels was born on September 18, 1998 and died July, 27, 2015. Katelynn was my best friend, my other half, my girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband. She’s my sister, not by blood but by soul; half of my heart and everything in between. Katelynn was the epitome of a fighter. If you went up to her and had a simple conversation with her, you would never think anything negatively about her life at home. She went through the saddest things but never let that affect the people who made her happy. What made her even more special is that she wasn’t one to complain. She constantly had people on her back, she constantly had people bringing her down and judging her. Telling her how to run her life. Even still she never let it stop her from living her life. Now that I look back, I feel awful for all the things that I would talk to her about because I feel like I sounded ungrateful. The things I thought I was going through couldn’t compare even the slightest to what she went through. Things got worse for her when she found out she was pregnant only at age 16. Of course finding out a loved one is pregnant at such a young age is disappointing to hear, however I made it my priority to make sure that I supported her because that was something that she needed the most. She carried the baby for about 6 months until a tragedy happened which caused her to lose baby Adrienne on June 3, 2015. Her reaction to the death of her baby was devastating. Katelynn was in the hospital for about 3 weeks then was instructed to go to a depression center to make sure she was taking care of herself physically and mentally. During these situations, a child wants their mother there the most, no matter what kind of relationship you may have, you always want your mom right there by your side. And she didn’t have that. Watching her go through that breaks my heart everyday. It was so important that I returned all the favors she's done for me. When a person doesn’t understand why things are happening, they start to blame it all on themselves. And that’s exactly what she did. She blamed herself for why her father left, she blamed herself for why she thought her mother hated her, she blamed herself for why her boyfriend of 3 years hadn’t visit her the entire 2 months of her being in the hospital, and lastly she blamed herself for the lost of her child. Her exact words were “I refuse to continue living my life in this terrible way.” At that moment, she became a person who I was unfamiliar with. To me, those were just words of her grieving. But to her, those were the words that made her decide to take her own life just a few days later.

When she was alive, I would always tell her that I didn’t know what I’d do without her and now that she’s gone, I really don’t know how i’m doing it. I guess it’s because I don’t have any other choice. I can’t say that it has been easy learning to live without her. I’ve come to the understanding that when I go to her house, it won’t ever be her who opens the door, or when I call her phone number, it’ll still just be her voicemail. I decided to create my sugar skull in remembrance of her because what I have learned is that Dia de los Muertos is for celebrating a person’s life not dwelling on the fact that they passed. I feel as though she deserves to be celebrated because I know that’s something she would do. She was such a joyful person, she would want me to remember her as an inspiration and i’m trying my hardest to keep that in mind. I truly want all of my words that I used to describe her to give off nothing but good vibes to people. And in the end, that’s really all I want for her, is for people to accept and respect her. I made my sugar skull to reflect Katelynn by painting the entire thing yellow. I chose yellow not because it was her favorite color but because yellow represents happiness and like I mentioned before that was an instant vibe that you got from her. I also chose to include red as a representation of strength. And lastly, I put glitter over the yellow for a super special reason. I think the glitter represents a covering for what’s on the bottom. If you think about it, when someone shows you something sparkly, you don’t think to ask what’s under it; all you see is that it’s sparkling and you like it. Katelynn put “glitter” on herself so that all you see is something pretty, she didn’t want people to know what’s really under it. She hated when people felt bad for her. She just wanted people to see her as your typically happy teenage girl.

Dia de los Muertos has opened up my mind to celebrating the passed loved ones because all the people whose deaths we care about i’m sure just want us to be happy. And this holiday isn’t about being sad. It’s about remembering all the good times that you have shared with that person. You think about how much joy you guys brought to each other. When someone you love and care about passes away, there is a strong temptation to remember them. Misdeeds are forgotten, offenses are forgiven. The hardest part of her passing is that I don’t feel like I told her I loved her enough. I use to blame myself and say “well maybe if i said it once more, that’s another day she’d be here” And I’d give anything to turn back time to do so. People say all great minds think alike. But I like to say all great hearts share a bond. And at the end of the day, she may be gone but our connection will remain unbroken.

Origen:

Ella nació en la Estados Unidos

Ella esta de Chesterfield Missouri

Katelynn asistió Hollenbeck mitad escuela

fuimos a Archbishop ryan para de la preparatoria.
Ella fue dieciseis anos

Mi hermana esta Afroamericano y somalí de su madre

Ella fue dominicana de su padre

Katelynn fue cinco pies, cuatro pulgada

Mi hermana esta musulman

Mi hermana fue alegre

Ella fue extremadamente confiable y muy amable  

Ella amado a comló

Katelynn’s favorita color fue verde

Ella gusta de baile

Yo soy en Filadelfia

Yo esforzarse por a guardo a positiva y acordarse bien memoria

Yo soy triste y emotiva

Yo soy afligido

Mi mensaje a su es:

Eres el mejor hermana del mundo

Gracias por estar siempre ahí cuando te necesito

Estoy muy orgulloso/a por tener un padre como tu

Siempre estás en mi mente

Te quiero mucho

Día de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos is one of the most celebrated holiday in the Mexican culture. It’s a day where we celebrate the lives of our loved ones who we have lost. At first I thought it was just a sad and creepy day for everyone but when I actually got to watch a few videos and learned more information about the holiday I realized that it’s not a sad day. It’s a day where you’re surrounded by food, music, family, and flowers. We get to cherish all the little things that make a person the way they are and what we took for granted about the person when they were alive. I love all of the creativity and thought that goes into Día de los Muertos from the different foods to the different ideas people use to present their ofrendas and altars. I know what you're thinking what in the world is an ofrenda? Well an ofrenda is a decorative stand where it would hold pictures of the one that passed with all the things that the person liked and enjoyed the most during their time here.

I was glad that I got to get a feel for this holiday and the way another culture deal with the feeling of losing a loved one. In class I based my project off of my grandmother her name was Carol Washington she was the third oldest out of eight children but she was the oldest out of four girls. She was born February 10, 1956 and past April 19, 2008 she lived until the age 52. She was born in North Carolina but was raised in city of brotherly love Philadelphia. Married my grandfather Raymond Washington in May 1972 and had five children. She was into dental and health care for many years and decided to pursue a career in dental.

Me and my Grandmother weren’t as close as when she was live but doing this project it showed me that we were just alike in so many ways. As a younger child I did not always get to see the greatest parts of my grandmother due to my behavior and what they would call a “smart mouth” and as old fashioned woman I was disciplined for my actions. However after participating in my first Día de los Muertos I have gotten to refresh and preserve my memory of her taught me that she means a great deal to me. Making me wish that I had more time to spend with a person who was just like me in characteristics and personality.

I decided to create my sugar skull in the remembrance of my grandmother because one she is my grandmother. Also, because she was my mother’s mother and my mother loved her dearly. My mother means a lot to me so I wanted to do this project for her to remember her mother since she can’t reflect herself doing this project. So I believe that my sugar skull reflects my grandmother because the colors I used reflected my favorite memory of her which was during Easter. Which she let me decorate all the eggs and hide my cousins and my brothers easter baskets all around the house. So I decorated my skull and mask in what I believe are easter colors. I also added braces on my skulls teeth because that reflected her being a dentist and when I think of dentistry I think of braces.  

Día de los Muertos open up my mind a lot for celebrating my loved ones because it let us do what our loved ones enjoyed. We can kind of get to walk into their shoes for the day by eating everything they loved and doing activities that they felt were stimulating and fun. I think that this is something that everyone could enjoy after they finished grieving or if they want to use this holiday as a grieving resolution. Because it lets you have a day where you get to talk about the person and get out all of your final cries till next year or their birthday. I feel as though this was a great exercise for the class it let us do exactly what the holiday encourage you to do. I would like to bring this holiday home with me because it let me get to know more about my grandmother even though I didn’t know her that well it gave me time to actually sit down with my mother and learn a lot more to my grandmother then what I knew previously.

Panegírico

Hola mi nombre es Lamira Jeffreys y yo hecho este panegírico para mi abuela. Yo tenía nueve años de edad cuando ella falleció.

Mi abuela Carol nació el diez de febrero de mil novecientos cincuenta y seis. Ella para realidad nació  en North Carolina pero creció en Filadelfia.

Ella fue una dentista y involucrados con atención médica. Ella fue la tres vieja de ocho niños.

Mi abuela fue de marrón piel y muy alta y flaca. Ella también fue enérgica y cariñosa.

En el momento no era lo suficientemente mayor para saber lo que estaba pasando. Yo aún tengo amor para ella pero son no como sólida debido a mi edad. La sola cosa yo deseo yo podía  tener con mi abuela es más tiempo. Más tiempo que yo podía usar a obtener a saber ella mejor.

En un sentido yo siento a la izquierda hacia fuera porque mi hermano y primos tienen mucho memorias de mi abuela pero yo no tengo muchos.

Así que cuándo de familia encantarse y hablar sobre ella yo no llegar a decir mucho