In case you didn't know, November 8, 2012 is Mission High School's Homecoming Game. It falls on a Thursday. I have reserved both November 8th and 9th at Justice Hall. We're looking to attend the game on Thursday, with our Homecoming Dance at Justice Hall on Friday.
Yes, you saw it here...Homecoming Dance!
While my plans may seem ambitious, there is purpose behind it.
Most of us have turned 60, 61, 62.... Our last reunion, June 23, 2012 was very poignant. We had several faces that had never attended our reunion before: Hilda Pinon, Alma Montalvo Sanchez, Henry Fankhauser, and Santos Estrada. Armando Cespedes brought his wife for the first time, too. For me, Henry's visit was especially heartfelt. I had been trying for years, leaving message after message on his answering machine. Luckily, Ramiro Rodriguez (Hug!) was able to persuade him to attend. This in spite of the fact that he had just lost his son, Joseph Henry Fankhauser, to the Afghanistan war in April of this year.
I don't think any of us imagined half of the things we have gone through and certainly not the impacts that those events have had in our hearts and minds.
Every time we reunite, I see the triumphs of the heart. We share our pain and definitely our physical challenges which are many but there is so much laughter, too. So many have lost spouses, parents and friends, losses that stretched hearts to the breaking point. We sympathize with those whose footsteps are following behind us. No one prepares you for these journeys.
But our reunions bring back our youth to our hearts to remind us we have so much to celebrate, so much to fight for and that YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
This last reunion reminded me and briefly stirred me out of my self-imposed prison. I say briefly because it wasn't long after the reunion that I returned back to my hole. I reemerged in early September.
Then on September 11th, despite the date having an already haunting reputation, a new memory has been attached to it.
Our last reunion is the last time we will see this one classmate. He made the effort to attend other reunions, despite the fact that he was very ill. He attended this reunion in a wheelchair. But make no mistake, the young man we knew in high school was smiling big, from the heart. In his eyes you saw the joy he felt at seeing everyone that attended. It was grand seeing him. Rafael "Fio" Ojeda was his constant companion, taking him here and there, visiting friends, and bringing him to our reunions. Fio was his ride as we would say.
On September 11, 2012, Hernan Garza went to meet his maker.
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So I say to you:
"I am linked to you in much bigger ways.
Ways I can't explain.
Lines I can't describe.
Your string crossed mine in the universe
and forever became entangled
together."
- Diana Corpus Garza
(c) 2007
Consider attending this next one. And you don't have to be from our Class of 1970 either...
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See https://www.facebook.com/pages/missionhighschoolclassof-1970com/153715497036 for more information on any Mission High School Class of 1970 news.
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