The Strawberry

The Strawberry Story by Katherine Aguilar

The Strawberry story about my Grandpa Enrique Delgadillo Senior

Intro

Let me tell you a little about grandpa before I start the story.

My grandpa was from Mexico. Grandpa and grandma had 9 children. Grandpa didn't speak English. He was a migrant farm worker and worked in the fields all his life.

There was a time he and his children lived in Washington State. He spent his working day picking Strawberries.

Now if anyone has seen a Strawberry field. It could grow acres and acres of strawberries. He wasn't the only picker. But you can just imagine how long it took to pick one field. They could work weeks and still not be finished.

Still even with all the work of picking it was the happiest time of his life. For all the family was close and united.

After a while in Washington my Grandpa and the family moved to Mission Texas with the family. While in Texas he went from picking strawberries to working to cultivation of grapefruit and planting grapefruit trees.

Even on his days off he would plant and do cultivation on his own grapefruit trees in his back yard.

I think he had at least 20 grapefruit trees, if not more.

When mother would take us to go visit.

We could play in the trees and even at times throw them. When we did throw them. He wanted us out of his trees and yelled at us to get off the trees in Spanish.

While I was his granddaughter. I can say I didn't talk to him. Since he didn't know English and I didnt know Spanish. To me he seemed to be a serious and quite man. He would sit on the porch and listen to his radio when he was not tending and cultivating his own trees in the backyard.

I did sit with him but we did not talk. I knew he loved me but didn't know how to say it in English.

The family grew older and each went their own way. Leaving grandpa to his Grapefruit trees. Still grandpa was happy with his trees.

We would get together once a year for Christmas which brought everyone together. I am sure he loved this time of the year.

After our Christmas visit in 1989. Mother received the call grandpa had died. We returned back to Mission Texas. To say our goodbyes. Then life went on. Those Christmas gatherings ended and the house was sold. A New Chapter had started. Life went on and grandpa became a memory of the past. Where everyone had moved on from.

Those main memories he loved were his family and cultivating his Grapefruit trees.

( I am breaking down this story in 3 parts)

The Strawberry Story

Part 1

Now, that I have shared a little about grandpa. You have a little of idea of who he was. Serious and loved his family even at times when he couldn't say it.

Plus he loved cultivation.

After all these years not much has been said about grandpa until now as I write. Here I am now at 52 writing about grandpa and I was 16 when he died.

About 7 years ago, I was having a good deep sleep at night. Guess who pops up in my dream Grandpa. I wasn't even alive when grandpa and the family lived in Washington.

In the dream. I was in Washington and I came out of a house to see a field of strawberries. So what a surprise I see in the middle of the field. I said to myself in a dream. "That is grandpa!" He had been picking and lifted his back up and looked at me. He had such a HUGE smile on his face. I could tell he was extremely happy. He had a wide brim beige hat on. A white long sleeve shirt with blue jeans on.

Seeing Grandpa so happy made me happy.

It was as if God had asked Him where would you like to spend eternity and Grandpa had told him in Washington picking Strawberries.

The Strawberry Story

PART 2

This story about Grandpa brings me now to this day and time.

My grandpa believed in God and made sure his family went to church.

He did not read scriptures out of the Bible from the Bible. But he did make sure his family believed in God.

Strawberry Story

PART 2 CONTINUED

He didn't preach.

He taught his family what little he knew about faith. Possibly the size of a Strawberry.

Still he taught about God to each of his children.

Then each of

Each of the children shared what they have on their own and shared what they learned about God and shared their children. Which created more Strawberries

Mother ran with it. She drove all over Dallas and Texas. With a poster size picture of Jesus on the car She did not preach. It was as if she too was dropping strawberries everywhere. Mother telling every niece, nephew, grandson and granddaughter about Jesus. She was planting so many strawberries all over the place.

When my cousin became an adult.

My cousin had heard so much about Jesus. She had a picture on her car. Her license plates are "I Love Jesus." My cousin picked up where my Mother dropped off. My cousin is dropping strawberries all over the place in bags full.

Other siblings, aunts and uncles showed it in their job choices except their Strawberries were more centralized. They didn't preach either. They shared the faith they knew from the first Strawberry and grew their faith from there.

Some family members didn't even realize they were capable of sharing their faith because they not know scripture word and verse. But they did act in kindness and compassion etc.

Each family member has shared at least ONE IF NOT MORE ONE STRAWBERRYS in their life so far.

This all started with Grandpa, a Mexican migrant farm worker. Sharing what he knew which was the size of a Strawberry.

Now if you look at the size of a Strawberry it looks small. Now look at it again.

A Strawberry has a lot of seeds.

So keep Dropping Your Strawberries all over the place.