CHINO MOLINA HAD PREMONITIONS OF HIS PASSING

By Juan Montoya
In this third week of July, sorrow has been our own yard.
Last week our buddy Big John Gonzalez passed unexpectedly at only 57 and left behind a grieving elderly mother and extended family that included his two sons who served in our military in Iraq and Agfhanistan.
Then the same week just a few days separate from his passing we learned that Oscar "El Chino" Molina had also checked out. Chino, who survived his father and mother and cared for them until they passed, lived alone. He was a regular handy man at local restaurants and downtown businesses eking out a living from his work.
We recall him quaffing a cold one with us about two or three years ago at a place called Las Vegas Nights where Marta had moved after closing El Palomino. He always had a shopping bag where he carried his lunch, some hygenic items, and always, a couple of books and a few notebooks where he kept his notes, poems and observations.
Chilo suffered from intense asthma attacks and always caried an inhalator to calm an oncoming attack. He said he had suffered two serious seizures in the past and had experienced out-of-body experiences. This is what he told us.
"The first time that I passed out of an attack I was at home taking care of my father and was walking into the bathroom. My mom had already died and I was with her when she passed. I was falling and I saw a bright dazzling white light as I felt myself going down. In that state I saw myslef crossing over the bright light and I heard a choir singing a beautiful song. I looked among the people singing and I saw my mother wearing bright clothes singing the beautiful song. I walked up to her and hugged her and told her that I wanted to stay with her and not go back.
"She looked at me and smiled and told me I couldn't because it wasn't time. 'Someone needs to look after your father,' she said. 'You'll be here eventually.'
"I tried to beg her to let me saty but she just smiled at me and started singing the beautiful song again. Then I felt this terrible pain all over my body and then I found myself lying on the floor of the bathroom with a bump on my lip where I had hit myslef when I fell.
"The second time I had a seizure I was at home again and was ready to go to bed. I fell on the bed and saw the light coming again and I was happy. After crossing the light I saw my mom singing in the choir again with all the happy people dressed in light. I went to her and hugged her and asked her if I could stay this time. She smiled again and told me it wasn't time for me to be there yet. I was disappointed but she assured me that the time would come. 'When?,' I saked her. She took out a paper and wrote down a date and gave it to me. At about that time I looked over to the end of the choir and saw some people who were not dressed in light congregated at the edge of the site trying to join them. I asked her who those people were and she said it was the people who had been bad people on earth. They were kept separate from the good ones, she said, because they smelled bad. 'Be a good man so you won't end up with them,' she told me.
"I woke up in great pain again but the dream was fresh in mind and I wrote down the date she had given me. I think that's when I'm going to go back to her."
This was about two years ago, and at the time Chino took out a battered notebook and showed it to us. Written down in his handwriting was a month and a year: July 2016. Nobody believed him then. But we do know.
Have a happy reunion with your mamacita and papasito Chino.