The night before was a long night. After getting dinner with Herbert and Hannah, I embarked on a six-hour drive to the Bay Area at 7:30 p.m. and arrived at 4:15 a.m. That meant that the next day was exhausting. I got my haircut and then took Nathan with me, at the request of Mom. Nathan wanted to play video games all day, but I instead dragged him along with me to get gas and a hot dog from Costco.
The next place we went was in Antioch. The freshly cut and bright, green grass made the place pretty, but the overcast sky and names engraved in stone resembled whitewashed tombs. This external beauty was a holding place for the dead.
As I parked my car, Nathan demanded that I take him home because he was tired. He had already been here and didn’t care to see what I was about see. After calling Mom, I was content to leave him in the car. Nathan could wait to go home. I had been waiting for this opportunity for months and was not going back to Concord with only an hour until closing.
As I got out of the car, I looked around to find the right name. I had been here before and knew generally where the grave was, but last time I was here, I could only see a blank stone, no name. Once I found the group of niches, I noticed funeral flowers propped on the wall for “Uncle Leo.” I found his name all right, but that was not who I was looking for. Partially covered by Leo’s flowers, I found the right niche with a flower in the vase. Engraved into the stone tablet was “Thomas Riso | 1944-2022.”
I hadn’t seen Nonno in ten months, and I wasn’t able to picture Nonno being dead. He just wasn’t around anymore; his absence was an unfillable void. However, seeing his name inscribed into the stone visualized the reality that Nonno had gone home. My heart ached. I longed to see Nonno again, to ask him about how he was doing. However, I also remembered Nonno’s moments of pain from the cancer in his last year of life. I remembered that Nonno was now with Lord and no longer in pain. He was in so much joy, worshipping our God and King, no longer dealing with the effects of sin. I therefore found hope that even though I missed Nonno now, the Lord would one day resurrect him from the dead with a new body and that I would be there too, able to worship the Lord perfectly. I thanked the Lord for my time with Nonno and for the future in which we will worship the Lord together.
I walked around to see the graves of Aunty Joann and Uncle Jim, who had passed away in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Nonno was no longer the odd one out. Not remembering where Nonno’s parents were, I had seen what I had wanted. It was time to go home. I hopped into the blue 2005 Toyota Corolla that Nonno had bought brand new and drove Nathan and myself away.
