Good Bye Carmen

Yesterday my good friends mother died. Carmen was a little Chilean woman who always welcomed me into her big rather loud Spanish home with love and affection. She always treated me in later years like I was the prized daughter who was returning from far off distant lands of opportunity looking like a movie star that just rolled in to say a quick hello then would be off again to some fabulous place far removed from who I once was. I loved that she thought I had become someone special and I dare not tell her that in fact I was still the same Jodie just a little older, wiser and with better clothes and a car. Carmen's command of English was something she never really came to terms with no matter how long she lived in Australia and last night whilst visiting my friend to grieve her mother I reminded her of a classic Carmen faux par. Once whilst visiting her she told me about how she had been on a picnic to a fantastic beach that she was taken with. Oh she said it is called Avocado beach. I looked at her and asked where is this Avocado beach I have never heard of it, and she told me the location and I thought erm yes I think you are referring to Avoca Beach. I never corrected her about it because it was cuter to hear someone refer to it as Avocado Beach. She was also famous for asking us if we wanted any Melon Water, we would all just nod yes having no idea what she was about to serve us only to be relived when she would come out with watermelon. She was the matriarch of a very large brood of girls and I always admired that despite the fact she was ditsy and almost burnt the house to the ground one night because she left an electric blanket switched on draped over the leather lounge which caught fire she had managed to raise a lot of children, who were decent respectable people. I will miss Carmen she was a lovely woman who deserves to be home where she felt at peace. She left Australia for a holiday a few weeks ago in her home town in Chile and it is there that today she will be laid to rest. Goodbye Carmen I will miss you.