In the Puerto Rican culture “la abuela” (grandmother) is a revered and honored position.   My “abuela” was no different.   Grandma Sarah and Grandpa Carlos migrated from Santurce, Puerto Rico to New York in 1949.  Their first residence was a tenement house in the South Bronx. Over the course of several years they would move from the Bronx, to Manhattan’s East Side (Spanish Harlem), and ultimately to the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.  With barely a sixth grade education Grandma overcame tremendous odds.  She raised three biological children, fostered four, adopted one, and mothered  eight grandchildren at various stages.  In the Puerto Rican culture, it is not unusual to find three generations living together underneath one roof.  Indeed, that was the case at my “abuela’s” house.  Grandma turned her little house on 57^th Street into a refuge for many throughout the years.   Click here to read the rest.

I will be sumbitting this tomorrow to a “Family History Writing Contest.” Winners will not be announced until May 2010.

Please say a prayer!