“Would you like to say something to them?” she asked.

I went over and knelt next to her.

“Granmè, Granpè, I wish I had known you,” I said.

“You don’t know them but they know you,” Tante Rose said.

Tante Rose believes the dead are always watching over us and this is her way of honoring her dead parents, just as Granmè Melina cleans her parents’ graves every year on the Day of the Dead to honor them.

During All Saints’ Day and the Day of the Dead, some people bring flowers and food to the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried. Others go to Mass and pray for their souls. Some musical bands go out in the streets and into the cemeteries. Tante Rose only lights her one candle.

LATER

While Manman is in bed, I spend the day listening to the radio. Aside from Christmas songs—radio stations start playing Christmas songs in October—all I hear about is politics. There is going to be a presidential election on November 26th, so whenever you listen to the radio or watch television, all people talk about is politics.

There are seven candidates running for president. The most popular candidate is the former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was president nine years ago, but the Haitian army forced him out through a coup d’état. He spent three years in exile in the United States, then returned in 1994 with help from American forces.

President Aristide stayed in power for one more year and then his time ran out. We had another president for five years, but now President Aristide is a candidate again. His posters are plastered all over Bel-Air. His motto is Lapè nan tèt, lapè nan vant, “Peace in the head, peace in the belly.” Everyone is talking about him on the radio, even though he has not been seen in public since early October.

I feel like an outsider to these political discussions because where I live, people don’t talk about politics all that much. Or maybe they do and I am not allowed to go to those places where people gather to do it.

Manman never talks about politics. If someone asks her opinion about an elected official, all she says is, “I don’t get involved in politics.”

Tante Rose is different. Ask her about the upcoming elections and she says, “If someone is going to do something good for the country, I will get behind that person.”

So while Manman lies in bed, I spend my day listening to people discuss politics on the radio. Some people think President Aristide will be reelected and they are glad. Others are still upset about a parliamentary election that took place last May and feel that the results were fixed so President Aristide’s party, the Lavalas Family Party, could win. It’s so much to think about that while Manman is getting rid of her headache, I am getting one myself.