my darling josseline,
today as cold snow swirls
in the bare arms of ancient pines i hear you singing,
softly, distant.
all those pure crystalline flakes
falling like tiny church candles at the altar of your longing.
i want only to comfort and hold you close.
you wanted only what every child should have.
a mother's love, close enough to protect you.
a life rich in her laughter,
devotion, admiration, her warmth, a mother's care.
i can only begin to imagine
the heartbreak she suffered leaving you and your brother
for a mysterious distant land.
far from home,
family, friends, church, customs, traditions,
driven by one burning necessity;
to provide for her family....
and the new unquenchable hunger that arrived in your souls
the day she left.
i hold your photograph,
so small it fits easily in the palm of my hand.
while the enormity of your sorrow spills beyond borders,
beyond nationalities, beyond reason,
and i mourn for you.
how much courage, how much longing, did it take
for a young girl of fourteen and her ten year old brother
to journey from el salvador to the united states
in desperation to reunite with their mother?
did you sleep beneath the stars believing?
were you scared, hungry, exhausted, as you
pressed ever forward for your one hearts desire?
how many times did you
pray, hope, anguish
and reassure each other that you would find her?
how many weeks did you travel lonely,
afraid, until your footsteps reached the sun bleached trails of arizona
and your song joined the plight of untold others?
you come to me in the colour of longing and eternal youth.
a faint whisper of the swirling pattern on the rose coloured
blouse you wore in church,
beneath your sad, sad eyes, lingers in the desert
where they found you,
fingers writing your dreams in sand.
like the seasons
that will forever weave around you,
a bright robozo of comfort for their cherished child.
the sun seems too bright....
the sky so impossibly blue
to have witnessed you,so still
an alone beneath your guardian tree.
hoping for your mother and dying so utterly alone.
josseline jamileth hernandez quinteros
15 septiembre 1993-20 febrero 2008
may the loss of your precious life awaken compassion.
today is sunday, our gathering of stumbling towards ecstacy.
it is also february 20, the day, every year, i write for josseline.
"For all of us, those who saw her,
or saw her picture, she became so alive, so real,
" Father Bob said, beginning to cry as he spoke, months after the Mass in the desert.
"We called her our sister, our daughter, our child.
Every migrant is dear to us. But she was everybody.
She was all of those thousands of people who suffered and died."
you can read her story by following this link
What can I say? Nothing seems adequate,
sorry!
Sue x
Posted by: Sue fox | February 20, 2011 at 12:20 PM
Sometimes the unbearable cruelty of what we call life is so overwhelming. What can we do except keep lighting candles to keep the darkness at bay?
What a beautiful candle you have written here today, Rebecca.
For Josseline.
Posted by: Ms. Moon | February 20, 2011 at 12:49 PM
This is such a tragic loss Rebecca, and you honour Josseline so beautifully here. x
Posted by: Sarah | February 20, 2011 at 12:57 PM
Reading this and the link to Josseline's story, raindrops fell outside, from my eyes and in my heart.
Posted by: gemma | February 20, 2011 at 02:23 PM
beautiful and so so sad.
i love your heart rebecca, so big and open.
and your writing is always such soulful poetry.
Posted by: Bethany | February 20, 2011 at 02:59 PM
So tragic- and even sadder that she is one of many. My heart aches for her brother and family. thanks for honoring her memory.
Posted by: Deann | February 20, 2011 at 06:58 PM
So sad.
Posted by: jenny | February 20, 2011 at 07:09 PM
It's all such a complicated thing...
in the end ... it seems all so terribly sad .
Posted by: deb @ talk at the table | February 21, 2011 at 07:30 AM
Reading Josseline's story is sobering and so very sad. Thank you for keeping this story current, so that people can become more aware and perhaps try, in their own ways, to make a difference.
Posted by: Dawn Elliott | February 21, 2011 at 09:39 PM
so glad to have stopped by and was able to read josseline's life journey.... amazing the capacity of selfless love... it is all encompassing... and heartbreaking.... shall we all count our blessings for every little breathe we take.... as believers in christ there is a beauty in knowing that absent from the body is present with the lord... amen... thank you for this post and the link as well... blessings to you for an open caring heart...
Posted by: ms pie | February 21, 2011 at 10:10 PM