Mom's Eulogy

If there is one word that I would use to describe my mom it would be LOVE. 

She LOVED indiscriminately. She loved ALL unconditionally. 

Like her given name Luz, which means light in Spanish, she lit up our lives. She was always the life of the party and her electric smile lit up the room.

She loved helping people. Seeing how she was far away from her hometown and understood what it meant to be without immediate family, she was always very quick to help immigrants here in the Downriver area. So much that many of them have become lifetime friends of our family. She just loved helping people that were in need. 

 

This LOVE was very evident in her works within the church and with her shawl ministries. Even while she was at U of M, she was asking for shawls to pass out to others suffering the same nasty disease. She made us set up a little cart outside her room to place the shawls on and she would leave her door open to watch as other patients walked by to offer them a comfort shawl. Everyone that walked by was given a shawl and even those who initially said “No thanks” initially; even they walked away with a shawl. That is just how my mother was, she never took no for an answer.

Another part of what she LOVED was art and music. She was a very talented lady. She knew that the works she rendered made people smile and she would make frames of her work for all her friends and family. She also loved her music and she passed this love on to her children. Growing up I remember her playing album after album for us from the Beatles to our cousin Alberto Vazquez who is a legendary singer in Mexico. She would sit at the piano and play for us for hours. My little brother picked up her talents to play instruments and all three of us have pretty nice voices thanks to her. Her beautiful voice was heard on Sundays here at Our Lady of the Woods as she was part of the choir. Lead by Bob Amore she loved everyone in the choir dearly.

My mom was a true people person. She loved being around people 24/7. The amount of friendships that she has created over her lifetime is unthinkable. If I can establish ½ the amount of great friendships as she has, I will have considered myself successful. Everyone here is a testament to this. She had so many friends that she loved like family. I mean how many people can say that their mother had a Bishop call and check on their family after hearing of the passing of their mother. Well my brother, sister and I can. She was truly amazing.

You all know how much she loved her friends, now double that for her family. Her love for brothers and sisters; Toño, Lupa, Paty, Maria Luisa, Luis Manuel and Jaime is my inspiration and I hope to pass that sense of love for family on to my children and my children’s children. Although separated by thousands of miles, distance never came between this family and because of this I feel so much love for all my relatives all around the world. 

As for us kids, we have lost our queen, Our Reyna, Our mamita. I know she is proud of us all. She was most proud of her 9 grandchildren: Zack, Kylie, Connor, Payton, Ryan, Cole, Rachel, Ian and Christian.   From here on out we will all carry on her legacy of love, charity and sense of community and hope to continue to make her proud for the rest of our lives. We are so proud of what my mom was throughout her entire life and even in death she did it so gracefully.  Not once did she say “why me?” not once did she say “damn this disease”. She did not want to bring anyone else around her down. She was so valiant even up to her last breath. Her faith in Christ and her love for life kept her strong.

Her major source of strength in life and her battle was my Dad. The bond that they share is one of complete and total love. My mom loved my dad so much that she sacrificed her life and being with her family in Mexico to be with my Dad and create a new family here in Michigan. From what I see here in front of me I have to say she SUCEEDED! 

I'm so proud of my dad’s strength over the years and especially over the past 4 months as he was the primary caregiver for my mom. I know he is very sad today, but as he has told me….he will ask my mom for help and as she did for EVERYONE, she will be there, with her smile and energy to help ease our pain. I love you dad and I hope we have made you and mom proud. I wish I could have her here a little longer to reinforce how much we all loved her, but I know that she KNOWS. 

Mom,

We love you with ALL of our hearts and we will miss you every day until we meet again.

Special thanks, to everyone who came to the hospital to see my mom over the past 4 months. Gladys and Alvin Berger were absolute angels and were there to help out whenever we needed them. Thank you Tia Paty with your blood you allowed us to have our mamita for 2 more months.

Thank you ALL for being here, your support and love is what will get us through this horrible pain.