Desert Dweller

My name is
Bruno Richard Talerico,
same as my dad’s
and great-grandpa’s.

I never met my sister Christine
and I never will.
She died during childbirth
when I was not quite six years old.

Mom and Dad were heartbroken.

They wanted the comfort
offered by a proper wake
and burial in the cemetery where
other family members rest.

But she wasn’t baptized. The priest
would not perform a ceremony
or allow her burial
with her family in the Catholic cemetery.

So in the dark of night,
Dad and Grandpa carried Christine
in the back of the old Ford,
dug a hole,
and laid her small body to rest
in great-grandpa’s grave.

I never met my sister Christine,
and I never will.

In Mount Olivet cemetery,
a headstone bears my name.
Beneath it rests
an old man and an infant.

© 2026 Bruno Talerico
11/365

Story my dad told me at my grandpa’s funeral.