Mulege

A storage shed near Jay and Diane's house

Last week I flew down to Mulege, BCS, Mexico to attend a pig roast honoring my mom on the first anniversary of her death. Her two brothers, Uncle Roy and Uncle Grant, were going to be there plus a hundred or so of her best friends.

The pig delivered by wheelbarrow.

24 entrants in the poker tournament to benefit a local school

Wednesday was mostly setting up for the poker tournament at noon and the pig roast pot luck at 4pm. The chairs and table arrived, and the pig went into the barbeque and the poker tournament opened with 24 players. Ed came in second and won a two liter bottle of tequila which he probably purchased for the event.

View from the palapa

I missed my scheduled flight on Superbowl Sunday so I flew down on Tuesday instead. I stayed with Jay and Diane who were good friends with my Mom and Ed.  They live on a beach five minutes away from Mom and Ed’s palapa.

Ed had enough table and chairs delivered for 200 people

 At least 150 people showed up for dinner. Some of them recognized me and said hello or related a story about my mom. She was definitely a popular woman down there – I knew that – but what I didn’t know is how respected she was as a mentor and not just a good friend. People looked up to her and Ed as role models or mentors. I think they naturally want to help people.

Pictures of my mom on the wall of the palapa

Fast Eddie and the Slow Learners, the band of local expats, played until well after dark and dozens of people danced the entire time. Occasional chants of “Wendy, Wendy” were heard above the band. It was really moving. The band took their second break and people started heading home. I caught a ride with my uncles to Jay and Diane’s beach house.

Around 3am someone was loudly knocking on the beach house door and I got up to see as did Jay and Diane. The woman and man at the door said Ed had died. They had already called Ed’s kids and they asked if we wanted to go to Ed’s palapa. Jay and I drove to the hotel my uncles were staying and and we all drove to Ed’s palapa on Coyote Beach.

Ed had a heart attack just before midnight on February 5, 2014, exactly one year after the love of his life, my mom, died. It was unexpected, of course, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that he left this world the way most of us would want to go – pain free, after a great party with hundreds of our closest friends, happy, satisfied, on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.