Why Rochester Became Home

Another one of the puzzle pieces to explore is my place in Rochester, NY. Like I mention in the About Me page, I was born in New York City in 1960.

Though my parents were born in Puerto Rico, they met in New York City, had my sister and me at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and divorced while living in Valley Stream, Long Island, NY., years later.

Mom had wanted to return to her “homeland” for many years. I remember growing up hearing Mom say that when I reached 5^th grade, we were to move to Puerto Rico. Instead, we moved to Valley Stream, NY.

While still living there, my Dad filed for a divorce.

When the divorce went through, my aunt offered her home in Puerto Rico. This gesture gave us a place to live while Mom remade her life. In the month of July 1976, my sister and I left New York to live in Puerto Rico at my favorite aunt’s home.

Mom stayed a bit longer to sell the house in Valley Stream. She arrived in the end of September. (close to my October birthday which I thought she was going to miss the date!)

In Puerto Rico, I finished high school, went to college, taught for 20 years English as a second language, and married.

Now we jump forward to the summer of 2013. I was still living in Puerto Rico. My first visit to Rochester came to be. I traveled to see how my oldest son was doing living alone in Rochester.

My son came up in March 2012 to work as a software engineer for Xerox. For a year and a half, I had not seen him. We would talk on the phone every other week. Though he would say he was eating well and had a good place to live, I had my doubts.

This was before Face Time or Zoom. I had to depend on what I heard not what I saw. You can say anything on a faceless phone. No one can see your face to know if you’re lying or not. I needed to see!

Finally! He paid for my first 10-day trip to Rochester to spend with him. It was a magnificent trip! Never had I been to upstate NY. I was impressed how parts of it reminded me of Valley Stream, NY.

From the airport, we went to Market Place where blocks and blocks of stores never ended for me. I kept snapping pictures like a tourist everywhere I looked.

It had been years since I had traveled to NY. I felt like a child going to the zoo for the first time. Snap here, snap there, snap everywhere! Sort of like Old McDonald had a farm theme. Told my son, I could see myself living here with Dio my husband.

Then, we arrived at his apartment and I was impressed. His style is minimalist which means few furniture pieces. It made the place seem bigger and neat. (So proud of him – neat!)

The next day, another surprise. He cooked a meal for us. My son is now a chef. Something he was not back in Puerto Rico. It was so unexpected and not “normal” for me, that I had to snap a quick picture to show grandma. She was not going to believe it!

Rochester is a great place to visit. It’s a city that combines the intellect, the performing arts, and their famous festivals. We became tourists, and I took lots of photos (which I’m not used to).

We went to our first trip to Niagara Falls on the American side. An incredibly unique experience! The waterfall, the wind, the sounds! We’ve heard so much of Niagara Falls. Now it is real for us.

Other areas we also visited as first timers were: The Play Museum, the Rochester Science and Planetarium Museum, and we explored quite a few walking trails! We also visited North Pond Park and Holy Trinity Church.

All these locations were impressive! I had forgotten the excitement of when you explore new places.

My son and I discussed the possibility of Dio and I moving to Rochester. Being a New Yorker, I wanted to come back to my “homeland” where I was born. My son wanted me to come up also. BUT…

Mom was battling breast cancer and did not want to live in New York. She wanted to die in her own place in Puerto Rico. As her caregiver, I wanted to stay and care for her for however long she was going to be alive.

Since her cancer was starting to spread slowly even though she was on treatment, we figured maybe another 2-3 years tops before she would succumb to the cancer.

So, the plan was to mark a future calendar to move to NY around the year 2016 or beyond. It all depended on Mom’s health.

Little did I know that very same year in December 2013, Mom would leave us. (See When She Left) We started to plan our trip to Rochester.

On February 16/2014, my husband Dio and I took a flight to Rochester to stay. We came up with 4 suitcases of clothes on the plane trip. We also shipped 10 boxes of sentimental possessions together with favorite Christmas things, some DVDs, a few kitchen items, and a few favorite books.

We lived with my son for 6 months while we got jobs and saved money to move out to a rented apartment. Up to now, we have been here ever since in an area called Webster.

Dio is the only one of us to visit Puerto Rico 4 times to see family. Three of those visits were to visit his mom and relatives. Unfortunately, the last trip was to bury her.

I can’t see myself visiting Puerto Rico yet. I still have 2 aunts on my Mom’s side alive.  A bunch of cousins live on the island. My sister still lives down there. I don’t know if I can handle seeing my Mom’s place without her.

My husband and I have been blessed living here in Rochester, NY. We both have steady jobs, a car, and a rented apartment that we can still pay. Both of us are part of the of St. Rita’ s Parish. Someday, we’ll buy a house. So many blessings!

But for now, this puzzle piece fits very well with the bigger picture of Life! Please see Welcome to my Blog!, and Why Read my Blog?, for a better understanding of our lives as puzzles.

I would love to hear from you share your puzzle piece! Please share below!