Canutito learns ‘costumbres del Cielo’
Un día Canutito estaba mirando un picture que Grama Cuca had hanging en la pared del bedroom. It was un retrato con muchos santos sitting before the throne of God en el Cielo. Grama Cuca came into el cuarto de dormir and saw Canutito staring intently at it.
“¿Qué estás mirando, m’hijo?” grama asked him.
“I was just wondering, grama,” Canutito replied, “about todas las personas that I will see en Heaven cuando vaya yo after I die.”
“Ésa es la fifty-thousand dollar question, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca said. “In fact, there is una story about un hombre who died y después de muerto, he went up to el Cielo. He was todo shocked de ver people whom he never would guessed que iban a estar allí: There was el muchachito who used to steal su lunch money cuando estaba en el fifth grade sitting en un cloud todo contento. He could also see al hombre malo who used to chase him out of his garden con una big stick, waving el palo grande like he was going to hit him. He also saw asu thirdgrade teacher who had pulled him de las orejas cuando she hadn’t liked his homework. Todas estas personas estaban sitting all quiet staring at him.
“Entonces el hombre, who had just gotten into Heaven, saw a San Pedro looking at him desde los pearly gates. He went up to St. Peter and asked him, ‘¿Por qué es que all of these people are here? Están todos quiet and, frankly I am shocked de verlos a todos aquí.’
“Entonces San Pedro said to him, ‘Shh, m’hijo, all of these people are quiet porque están todos en shock that YOU made it into Heaven también.”
Canutito laughed at esa historia that grama had told him. He asked her, “Grama, ¿cómo puedo yo hacer prepare to go to Heaven?” “By being very good en esta vida, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca replied.
“How did they used to prepare a las personas who were dying en los días en más antes, grama?” Canutito asked her.
“As I recall,” Grama Cuca said, sentándose en la cama, “in the olden days, whenever people were dying, la familia used to send for the priest que viniera a la casa to give them los últimos sacramentos. Once they saw que el padre was close to the house, they would go pa’la estufa and take out un tizón from inside the stove. Over that glowing ember, they would sprinkle sugar. The sweet smell del tizón y el azúcar was called ‘dando jumasos;’ that was como hacían imitate el charcoal and incense used by the priest in the church. They would go meet al sacerdote con jumasos.
“Sometimes, el agonizante used to be suffering por mucho tiempo.”
“Uh, grama,” Canutito asked her, “¿qué es un agonizante?”
“Un agonizante,” grama replied, “es una persona who just suffers and suffers and sometimes su familia doesn’t like to see them sufriendo tanto so they would go outside and find some soft dirt. They would take esa tierrita and rub it en las plantas de los pies de la persona agonizante. By rubbing the dirt on the soles of their feet, they were dándoles permiso to go back to the earth from where we all came.”
“Ésa es una interesting custom,” Canutito remarked. “Habían otras, grama?”
“Sí, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca said, rising from the bed. “Después de que las personas would die, a man was sent to the village church y allí he would toll the bell. Repicaba la campana dependiendo on the number of years que la persona había vivido. He would toll the campana treinta veces, por ejemplo, if the dead person had lived thirty years and eighty times si había vivido por eighty years. También he would toll la campana tres veces and then pause if the dead person era un hombre y dos veces si había sido una mujer and he would toll it continuously if the dead person era un baby or ‘un angelito’ as he was called. It was called ‘doblando’ la campana.”
“I guess que there are muchos modos de hacer prepare to go pa’l Cielo, ¿qué no, grama?” Canutito asked her.
“Sí, m’hijo,” grama agreed, “pero el mejor modo es de hacer treat a todas las personas in your life como hermanos y hermanas that way we can all become la familia de Dios.”
“Amén,” Canutito whispered …