Carmela’s House

 

We walked into Carmela’s house in Casas Grandes and stepped back into the time of my youth.  Her radiant smile welcomed us, she was dressed to the nines in a turquoise Mexican  flowing outfit that she favors these days and that favor her.

Carmela is a great cook and lunch could not wait and neither could my godmother Virginia.  The table was beautifully set with a bright bouquet of bouganvillea and lunch was pasta with a delicious meat sauce that I must get the recipe for.

 

Carmela literally built this house from a pile of rubble surrounded by thick adobe walls and proudly  took me down the memory-lane hall  into a gorgeous room that she has furnished with the luxurious bedroom set she grew up with.  Every room is full of treasures, mementos and her own paintings line the walls. This lady has taste, talent, spirit, warmth all peppered with a spitfire temper to keep things interesting  She also has a special power that somehow makes people do her bidding.

When we were in boarding school at Loretto Academy in El Paso, Carmela would  always get up late and her close friends, like worker bees, would come in to make her bed, dry mop her floor and help her get dressed before the nuns came in to make their daily inspection.  She never got a demerit.  She has not lost the power and some friends have helped her fulfill her dream of restoring this historical structure that is certainly worthy of a major magazine article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the garden is the most magical place and I went crazy taking photographs with my new Canon Rebel that mt boys gave me for my birthday that I came to celebrate here.  You can read about it in Almost Home.  All the pictures of the house and garden are on Shutterfly as are the ones of people.