Memorias from my mother, Sara Morales

"Lela would make one particular baño (healing bath) from seven waters.
Florida water
Holy water
Ocean water
River water
I don't remember the rest of the waters.

When you were little, we would go to our weekend house in Woodstock. Dad and I loved to have our Bustelo coffee first thing in the morning. It was an essential part of our ritual for unwinding in the country. We would sit at the counter at the large kitchen window sipping our coffee, breathing in the fresh country air, noticing a deer or two in the woods. We always brought a gallon of water from our kitchen faucet in the Bronx. This water was essential for making our perfect cup of early morning coffee.
In returning to the Bronx we would always fill our gallon container with river water from the river on Mink Hollow Road. Lela would use it in her seven water baths."