- When we die I think we all kinda
just are part of the Cosmos.
My family's from Morovis, Puerto Rico.
Remember when my uncle Jessie passed away,
everyone came you know, from everywhere.
Before he was nearly gone, people would come over
and bring gifts and say prayers and Rosary
like kinda 24/7.
- Mmm.
- Until you know his body left.
- My family is from Peru and
um,
very traditional I would say.
There's a Catholic
ritual,
everybody shows up in suit,
wearing black
and you just,
in quiet,
grieving the loss.
- I'm not afraid of dying, necessarily.
I even have the saying that I go, you know,
like today, I'll be happy if I die today
because I feel like I'm living
to the fullest of my potential.
I was really close by to my father when he passed away
and I saw the fear of death in his eyes,
so I know that there's, you know,
death is a really scary thing,
but not for me, not right now.
- I like to think of death as a transition period.
I am not sure what happens afterwards,
but I like to think that
is just another beginning.
Growing up in Peru,
you didn't speak much about death,
only, you know,
you knew hat it was sad and maybe depressing.
More as an adult,
I like to see it as a fact.
You know, we are all somewhere,
one way or another, we're going to experience it.
- Yeah.
- I came to your crystal-healing workshop.
I've just been reflecting off on life-journey
and death.
The passing of my friend, in brief,
she took her own life
and I felt
abandoned,
I felt
betrayed,
even selfishly, you know,
all theses feelings come
and you're thinking about yourself
and how this affected you.
- [Veronica] Yeah.
- I loved her so much
and I never really expected anything from her.
I just, you know,
knew that she was there, you know?
A text away, a phonecall away.
- [Veronica] Yeah.
- And now she wasn't.
- The ways that I would deal with that type of loss is,
I would kinda carry around little necklaces
that reminded me of what their figure was
and maybe what they were doing.
In my practice I tend to find
some type of object to be created
or some type of drawing to be made
that really helps us
have a tangible thing to look at,
to hold or to carry or to wear.
- [Mario] I really like the idea of being able to carry,
you know, something to remember you a loved one.
I really relate to your pendants that you make.
- Yeah.
So much life comes after death, in a certain sense.
- The way I see it, I can remember her
for, you know,
the hole that she left in my life, in my heart.
Or I can just remember her joyfully.
- Yeah.
- So, that's what I choose to do.