Back in 1994, two years after my mother was diagnosed with her lung cancer, we brought her up here to visit her brothers and sisters who live up in Washington state and also for us to hook up with my brothers who live here, with Lupe and Raul. We had a little reunion of sorts at Lupe's house. I believe also at my Uncle Manuel's house, we also had a big get-together there. A lot of our relatives were there. At Lupe's gathering we had a smaller type of event where we brought her so she and Lupe could get together. I think my brother Lupe had just come out of prison. He'd done some kind of time for some kind of drug charge, and he'd just come out. We tried to get her to maybe even talk to him to get him to think about his life in terms of what he was doing, changing his ways.

So we brought her up here and she was able to get together with them. They were really happy about it and she also saw some of her sisters that she hadn't seen for quite a few years. They were able to get together and talk about the old days and that kind of thing. But her family was never really that close. They got together, and I don't think they realized that she was getting together for perhaps the last time they were going to see her with the exception of my Uncle Manuel, because they couldn't believe that somebody who looked so vibrant at that point was destined to have her life shortened in a couple of years. So they made one big effort to get together and celebrate while she was here. So she was very happy and then she went back to Texas. Actually, after that trip she never really was in good shape, she actually started to decline progressively. Two years later, of course, she really couldn't make it anymore.