Hello everyone, 

I am writing this on behalf of the family and friends that surrounded my mom during her last months, weeks, and days before her death. 

As you may know, she passed away early Saturday, April 24. She was 56. 

In late 2019, while she was in the middle of a divorce, she was diagnosed with leukemia and was lucky enough in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, to undergo a bone marrow transplant. After a year and a half-long struggle, however, the illness proved to be too strong for her, but not her spirit. 

We are grateful for the extra time we were allowed to have with her. 

She left peacefully in the middle of the night. 

My mom was an immigrant woman from Guatemala who came to this country at 19 in the early ’80s when her home country was going through a Civil War. She raised 3 children, sending one, the first in the family, to college. 

She worked every odd job an immigrant woman could in all parts of this city: she was a nanny, cleaned homes, worked at a convenience store, was a cosmetics saleswoman, and even attempted to set up her own shop in the Westlake neighborhood. Anything to feed her children.

In the end, she wasn’t able to work for most of the past year and a half. 

She deserves her rest. 

My mom managed to have very modest savings and the family has gotten together to pool as much resources as possible to meet the costs of this loss we were not expecting. We’ve had only about a week’s time to prepare.

I know this past year has devastated not only us, but the whole world. We, firsthand, know the struggle that many people are going through. 

If you can aid us in any way, we would greatly appreciate it! 

Thank you for all the messages. I will respond as soon as I can! 

William R.