My father died 7 Decembers ago. My mother died 18 months ago. I always remember them on certain anniversaries or those first years in “el exilio.”.
On Christmas Eve 1968, our family went to the midnight mass. By the way, very few parishes actually celebrate mass at midnight anymore. Our church today celebrates mass at 9 p.m.!
Nevertheless, it was a rather remarkable ride from church. It took me a while to realize that I was hearing three men reading the Good Book from a spaceship circling the moon. It was one of those moments that I will never forget.
Years ago, families actually sat around to watch the NASA missions. In our household, it was a lot of fun to gather around the TV and enjoy an Apollo rocket going into space. My favorite part was hearing my father say that he would have never believed it when he was growing up. My mother would usually compliment the U.S., with the Cuban version of “what a country”.