Tag Archives: Loss

Borrowed Keys

Nationality: American/Mexican
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: West Covina, CA
Language: English/Spanish

TEXT: “When I was a lot younger, my grandfather passed away, and I was heartbroken. I tried not to remember him so I wouldn’t get sad and start crying, but when that wouldn’t work, my mom started a wholesome joke to keep his memory alive. Anytime someone would misplace something or lose it, she would say, “Abuelo probably borrowed it”. It was a little thing that meant a lot, since he would always misplace things or lose them and borrow other people’s instead. One morning, I was looking for my keys, since we needed to leave for a family dinner, and I couldn’t find them for the life of me. I looked all around my room and our house, but no luck. As I finished checking our kitchen and living room, I headed back up to my room in hopes of finding them, and there they were. My keys were sitting on my desk when I walked back in, and when I told my mom, she laughed and said, “Abuelo’s always around”.

CONTEXT: This short personal narrative describes the quiet impact of grief and the small, meaningful ways families keep loved ones present after they’ve passed. The narrator recalls the death of their grandfather during childhood and how that early loss brought emotional difficulty. In response, the narrator’s mother introduces a gentle family tradition: joking that “Abuelo probably borrowed it” whenever something goes missing. This phrase becomes a wholesome coping mechanism that transforms grief into connection.

ANALYSIS: This memorate serves as a wholesome example of how families create small traditions that keep the memory of loved ones alive. The informant’s family marked the moment of loss in a gentle way by saying something meaningful that offered a small comfort, “Abuelo probably borrowed it.” The missing keys provide a bit of mystery, but it’s less about animating the dead and more about how memory, love, and belief intersect and interact in daily life. The mom’s response is an indication of how this small ritual comforts the grieving family and allows the grandfather to still have a presence in the family narrative, even though he has passed.

La Llorona

  1. Details
    1. Collected on 03/23/2024 
    2. Genre: Legend
    3. Language: English 
    4. Nationality: Mexican
    5. Relationship to Informant: Friend’s Father 
  2. Text
    1. Summary
      1. The informant’s mother told him a version of the La Llorona legend where there was a woman who lived her life in torment after her children fell into the river and died. 
    2. Direct transcription of folklore:
      1. “You are going into my memory banks here, but my mother used to tell us about this woman who was very afflicted because her children had drowned in the river. And you could hear her wailing ‘ah mis hijos’ – oh, my children. So, it was almost a tale my mom would tell us so not to do dangerous things because she would be forever depressed. It wasn’t so much that this was an evil person that did something bad because I think La Llorona – the original one – drowned her children. In the version my mom would tell us, the children fell into the river and drowned. So, she would wail forever for her children.”
  3. Context 
      1. The informant is the father of my friend. He grew up in a small town in Mexico. This story was told to the informant by his mother when he was a child. 
  4. Analysis 
      1. This oikotype of the La Llorona legend portrays the woman as a grieving mother who lost her children. This legend was told by a mother to her children to prevent them from risking their lives by doing dangerous things. This legend tells the children that if they aren’t careful, they can cause their mother to mourn for the rest of her life.