So. GoFundMe kinda has a checklist of things they want us to hit when we write these things. I'm gonna try my best to do this first one, but damn. That's hard.
"Tell the story of your loved one"
Where can I even start trying to tell the story of Dolores Altagracia Mena Ortiz. She's out of this world amazing. She is a mother of three girls, my mom amongst them. A grandmother to many. She's fierce. She's got more sass than you'd expect in a small, kind-eyed woman. She's got a smile that can bring plants back to life, when it's authentic, and a smile that can burn holes through people when she's trying to hide her disgust. Honestly she can't hide her disgust. She's present in a way I strive to be. She has tattooed eyeliner, like a g. She loved coffee, dancing (I have many videos of her dancing if you'd like to see), Hennessy and breakfast with her grandson. With me. She also loves her family, which brings me to the last part of the story that she wrote. Us.
Her family, and honestly every single person she loved and cared for in any way. We're all her family, and God did she love us. God, did she make us laugh, cry, smile, and listen. My grandmother taught me how to listen. How to smile. How to love fiercely, passionately, but never at the expense of your own well being. She was my caretaker until I was 7. She was a light that could shine in the blackest of nights and she was my absolute best friend.
Her story does not end here. So to tell you the story of her life, is to tell you to keep watching. To keep loving. To keep making the people around you smile. To keep doing everything that you can, to breathe. Her story is to be continued, in the people that she loved. In us, her family.
She meant everything to me. I keep asking myself why this had to happen, and to her of all people, but there isn't an answer. There is no reason why this should have happened. She is the absolute last person I know who deserved this. To leave us in this way. But. It happened. And now that it happened, we have to learn to be okay. I keep thinking about how lucky and grateful I am to have just seen her before she got sick with COVID-19. How perhaps it was written in the stars that my abuelita bella was meant to leave us in this way, and how lucky I am to have come back from a long trip outside the country when I did, and to spend a couple days with her. To be able to have coffee with her one last time. Wine with her one last time. Talk shit with her one last time. Make each other laugh and smile one last time. Some in my family were not so lucky. But, she meant the world to all of us, and we meant everything to her.
This brings me to my next point. She didn't deserve this, and her family didn't as well. And we hope that by creating this, we can find solace in our community. In all the people who we've made laugh or smile. In all the people that she helped us touch. She always talked about her childhood and how much she loved Monte Cristi in Dominican Republic, where she was raised. I have a 40-minute video interview that can attest to how much she loved Monte Cristi, and we want to bring her back home, together as a family. We have her ashes, and want to leave her ashes in the ocean off the coast of her hometown.
Please donate whatever you can, whenever you can. We deserve to give her the sendoff that she deserves, and we all want to be together to say goodbye to her. Funds will go directly towards travel costs to the country she was raised in, and some lodging costs as well.
Obviously COVID-19 is still an issue and we won't be able to be together/go to Monte Cristi until we are past all of this. But the funds will be safe and secure, and used when the time is right. Our hearts are with the families of anyone who has had to deal with a death from COVID-19, and with the nurses and doctors and hospital staff working tirelessly to help, who are undoubtedly experiencing an emotional toll beyond measure.
Help us if you can, or at least spread the word. Anyone that we have touched, hugged, comforted, made laugh, or smile, has felt Dolores Mena.
Thank you.
"Tell the story of your loved one"
Where can I even start trying to tell the story of Dolores Altagracia Mena Ortiz. She's out of this world amazing. She is a mother of three girls, my mom amongst them. A grandmother to many. She's fierce. She's got more sass than you'd expect in a small, kind-eyed woman. She's got a smile that can bring plants back to life, when it's authentic, and a smile that can burn holes through people when she's trying to hide her disgust. Honestly she can't hide her disgust. She's present in a way I strive to be. She has tattooed eyeliner, like a g. She loved coffee, dancing (I have many videos of her dancing if you'd like to see), Hennessy and breakfast with her grandson. With me. She also loves her family, which brings me to the last part of the story that she wrote. Us.
Her family, and honestly every single person she loved and cared for in any way. We're all her family, and God did she love us. God, did she make us laugh, cry, smile, and listen. My grandmother taught me how to listen. How to smile. How to love fiercely, passionately, but never at the expense of your own well being. She was my caretaker until I was 7. She was a light that could shine in the blackest of nights and she was my absolute best friend.
Her story does not end here. So to tell you the story of her life, is to tell you to keep watching. To keep loving. To keep making the people around you smile. To keep doing everything that you can, to breathe. Her story is to be continued, in the people that she loved. In us, her family.
She meant everything to me. I keep asking myself why this had to happen, and to her of all people, but there isn't an answer. There is no reason why this should have happened. She is the absolute last person I know who deserved this. To leave us in this way. But. It happened. And now that it happened, we have to learn to be okay. I keep thinking about how lucky and grateful I am to have just seen her before she got sick with COVID-19. How perhaps it was written in the stars that my abuelita bella was meant to leave us in this way, and how lucky I am to have come back from a long trip outside the country when I did, and to spend a couple days with her. To be able to have coffee with her one last time. Wine with her one last time. Talk shit with her one last time. Make each other laugh and smile one last time. Some in my family were not so lucky. But, she meant the world to all of us, and we meant everything to her.
This brings me to my next point. She didn't deserve this, and her family didn't as well. And we hope that by creating this, we can find solace in our community. In all the people who we've made laugh or smile. In all the people that she helped us touch. She always talked about her childhood and how much she loved Monte Cristi in Dominican Republic, where she was raised. I have a 40-minute video interview that can attest to how much she loved Monte Cristi, and we want to bring her back home, together as a family. We have her ashes, and want to leave her ashes in the ocean off the coast of her hometown.
Please donate whatever you can, whenever you can. We deserve to give her the sendoff that she deserves, and we all want to be together to say goodbye to her. Funds will go directly towards travel costs to the country she was raised in, and some lodging costs as well.
Obviously COVID-19 is still an issue and we won't be able to be together/go to Monte Cristi until we are past all of this. But the funds will be safe and secure, and used when the time is right. Our hearts are with the families of anyone who has had to deal with a death from COVID-19, and with the nurses and doctors and hospital staff working tirelessly to help, who are undoubtedly experiencing an emotional toll beyond measure.
Help us if you can, or at least spread the word. Anyone that we have touched, hugged, comforted, made laugh, or smile, has felt Dolores Mena.
Thank you.