When I think of angels, I think of my mom and my grandma right away. My mom, Luz Marina, passed when I was 16. She suffered with asthma her whole life. When she was 49, she had an asthma attack and passed away. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple years before, so I guess her body just couldn’ t handle the asthma attacks anymore. The day she died, she had an attack and they took her to the hospital and hooked her up to some machines. Because she had cancer and asthma, she’ d spoken to us about death. She made it clear she didn’ t want to be hooked up to a machine. We gave it two days, but her brain didn’ t have much oxygen, so there wasn’ t much we could do. I loved my mom’ s attitude. She was feisty. I think I got that from her. She loved Halloween and scaring me, so she’ d do things like put fake spiders under my pillow. Sixteen is when a girl wants to know about her sexuality and about boys and things like that. It was difficult to lose her then. I miss those conversations, and now I miss her when I want to talk about my marriage or how to keep a household. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, and now I have a daughter. It’ s overwhelming, it’ s hard, it’ s frustrating, but it’ s an incredible amount of joy and it’ s fun. You get to raise someone with morals that you believe are right, with a foundation that you create. I get jealous when my friends tell me about how when their daughters hang out with their grandmothers. It was especially difficult in the beginning when she was a newborn. It’ s an,“ I wish,” sort of feeling. My grandma on my mom’ s side, Marina, is also my angel. She wasn’ t necessarily religious, but we used to do a lot of coloring books, and we’ d always color angels. I was close to her throughout my childhood. I would go to her house and she would make me food, we’ d watch the news together, and we’ d color. She had pancreatic cancer and passed shortly after my mom did. The most important thing my mom and grandma passed on to me was compassion. My family has always been the compassionate type, and they’ ve always taught me to think about how the other person is feeling. Be careful with your words. You never know what someone is going through. Nowadays, kids can be very cruel, so that is something I try to instill in my daughter. I want her to understand the concept of compassion.