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| Mauro Gonzalez is now 15. Here he is at around 8 to 10 years old, at home, with Grandpa and Grandma's wedding anniversary newspaper clipping posted on the family refrigerator |
My Favorite Place:
Visiting Ms. Rita by Mauro Gonzalez
My name is Mauro Gonzalez, & in brief: I recently found out about Rita Wysong's passing & I wanted to write something about her. I found this email through the Wysong family blog, & I'm assuming you're the daughter, Linda? Though let me explain myself.Ms. Rita & Bob's neighbors in Frenchton Place was this Hispanic family with three sons. I'm the youngest, Mauro. Today, my mother found an old photo of me, & in the background was a newspaper clipping on the fridge, labelled 'Wysong', & I suddenly got curious about what happened to my old neighbors, then found Ms. Rita's obituaries. When I told my parents what I found, they were also sad about her passing, & I had a sudden urge to find someone related to the family who I could send something about our sweet neighbors.
Growing up, I have this constant memory of Ms. Rita buying us chocolates & toys for us kids around Easter & I think Christmas as well. I remember particularly one spring day opening up the door to find a box full of toy cars, which I then played with all morning. This is how I remember those two; as the sweet elderly couple that lived next door.
I don't know the extent of my parents' interactions with them, but my parents did very much love them. Ms. Rita is one of those people to me, where I don't remember ever first meeting her or learning her name; she was always there. Seemingly as long as we lived in 19335 Frenchton Place, Ms. Rita would always be our neighbor.
When they wrote their book of memoirs on their journeys in the foreign service, Ms. Rita gave us a free copy & I was excited to have it. I also remember going into her home with my mom, Bob watching old black-&-white movies on the TV, them asking me what my favorite subjects were in school.
One night I remember looking out of my window, & seeing an ambulance in front of their house, with a crowd of neighbors around. I wanted to go out, but my parents didn't want me to. Soon we found out that Ms. Rita had been taken to the hospital. My mom & I visited her, & talked to her for a while. That night I had a homework assignment, and one of the questions was what was my favorite place to go. I was half-way through writing Hershey Park, before I put 'visiting Ms. Rita' as the answer.
When they eventually moved out to Asbury, Ms. Rita gave my mom a key to the house. I remember walking through it, all empty. I found a blank postcard on the ground & took it with me as a keepsake.
The other day on the way to the dentist, we passed by the retirement home & I thought to myself 'That's where Ms. Rita is'.
I guess it's a symbol of how loved they were by the Gonzalez family to have that newspaper clipping up on the fridge. When I saw the obituaries, it hit me in a way that I hadn't felt in a while. My own grandmother (a fiercely independent woman) recently had a stroke, which rendered her reliant on nurses & helpers in a retirement home. She's 82, lived by herself until now. I also once had to call an ambulance on a friend a month ago; the EMTs said to her that if I didn't call she would've died. I think it would've been the same week of Rita's passing. Just reminds you of how fragile life is, & that you have to enjoy it while it lasts.
Best regards,
Mauro Gonzalez
