Wheels

We returned from Italy early on Sunday morning of this week.  It had been quite an adventure that I will always cherish with Beloved Richard. We basically have hit the road running on our return with different projects and tours during this Dia de Los Muertos period.  It was so good to see all of our Beloved Critters and to love them.  Our Divine Matriarch Wheels was happy to see us and did her little dance…not letting me get too close at first.  She has always been her own girl…She has been getting weaker as she approached fifteen.  I remarked to myself how she was the only one left from the original group of critters that gathered with us when we first came to Mexico.  The others had passed and she was "The Queen"….I have been having to help her get in her chair lately…she occasionally would stumble when running up some steps.  I remarked to myself again yesterday that she was able to run out through the bars of the gate having never put on a bunch of weight.  Yesterday we had a large tour of 30 women who came out to see the place.  The tours that we give always culminate in my studio.  Thirty American women in my studio…chaotic…I noticed that Wheels wanted out and I opened the door for her… the women started to trickle out of the studio to get in their vans to return to San Miguel…We don't like our little girl Perla out in the street but we allow the others.  Wheels skirted out down the cobblestone road to avoid all the Gringa chaos and their vans.  In the meantime Richard made us a beautiful soup and we were enjoying it in my studio while Carlos was working at the table where we were eating…His youngest son, Jaime Salvador came into the studio and was talking to his Dad…Something was wrong…So I ran out of the studio and on to the road and there lay the body of our Beloved Wheels…our Dear Beloved Friend's heart gave out on the road…The road that she ran down so many times to greet us when we came home from town…Her little body was still warm….I was sobbing…I am crying now as I write…these tears are my prayers…my prayers of gratitude for having Beloved Wheels in our lives for fifteen years…She has passed on…it is all Impermanence…these tears are impermanence…she will always reside in my heart…Beloved Wheels has moved on…she died with dignity and she graced our lives….