El Paso

My heart goes out to El Paso and El Pasoans.

El Paso has always been a special place to me, almost a second home.  I had aunts, uncles, first cousins, second cousins there and I spent time there growing up:  hiding in the basement with my cousins when visitors came that we didn't want to see, my three cousins trying in vain to teach me to play pool, sitting on the porch with Barbara, my favorite cousin and role model, another cousin teaching me to cha cha, crossing the bridge into Juarez to go to their nightclubs or to shop, sitting on a mountainside with a boyfriend watching the stars, giggling with my sister in the lobby of Hotel Paso Del Norte as we made up stories about other guests. 

 So many happy memories blurred by the terrible massacre on Saturday.  I keep hoping every one is the last.  I pray I'll be right about this one.  Each one is one too many.