My Family Culture


Picking only three things to take with me in the event of a national emergency would be very difficult to do. I am a pack rat by nature and choosing would drive me nuts. But,  I would have to choose my novenas, my iphone, my mommy memory box that my girls made when they were very little girls.

A novena is a vocal prayer, or series of vocal prayers, that you commit to praying over an extended period of time. These prayers are usually linked to a specific devotion (for instance, devotion to a particular saint). I am devoted to the Little Flower Saint Therese. I have always believed that this Saint has shown me the way every time I went astray. I told my priest once that I am the little black sheep in our Fathers herd. My family we all have a patron saint, My mother is Saint Barbara, My grandmother is Saint Clara and I was given Saint Therese.

I was such a typical teenager on the telephone  at all times, and now with my iphone I am a bit the same. I consider the iphone my connection for everything. In there I  have my pictures, my games, my lists, my music, my magazines, my recipes, and my medical journal.







This box my daughters made for me as a birthday gift 14 years ago. I kept it full of their pictures, drawings, awards,  old birthday and Christmas and mother's day cards,and dried flowers. I hold this old box dear to me because it was something they sat together and decided that this would be the best gift they could give me.  I was divorced from their father and we were alone for a long time. I LOVE this box and that is all I can say about that.


Trying to choose one out of the three made me think long and hard. My novenas are a part of me since I was a little girl. My faith has taken me through the roughest of times and the joyous of times. These novenas are very much a part of me inside and out. The iphone is something that in time I know that technology will find its way back into my life. My daughters memory box that they created with so much love is something that I can never get rid of. Those adorable drawings and writings, well.... they do not write or draw like than anymore. I can't let that go no matter what.

I know that my family is something that is real and important for me. The tiny details that my children show me and has shown me since they were very little has made me complete. I simply adore those three little people. I learned that all families have certain things that makes them unique, special and important within themselves. I learned that culture and diversity are the pieces of a puzzle that makes up a family. Each piece fits perfectly but not shaped perfectly.