Imelda Gervacio

It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this today after finding out about Imelda's passing earlier today. I have worked with Imelda for about 18 years and she has always been a generous, selfless person. As a coworker, she has always been a team player who looked to help out in any way she could. She was at the school I started at as a TA, the year I began and worked with me in my classroom. After that, she became a special education assistant and went on to get her special education credential and worked as a special day class teacher for over 10 years. The last 2 years, she was the English Learner Coordinator and was able to teach small group lessons to our English Learners. This is something Imelda was very passionate about, having grown up as a bilingual child herself. In addition to being an amazing educator and coworker, Imelda was extremely dedicated to her family, raising 3 amazing children, Cecilia (24) Sydney (15) and Gilbert (12) and was also caring for an aging mom with many health needs. I had the pleasure of teaching 2 of her children in my classroom over the years. Just like Imelda, they are polite, respectful, caring individuals who would always ask you how you were doing.

Towards the beginning of this school year, Imelda started not feeling well. Soon after, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer that had spread throughout her body and took her way quicker than we all imagined. At work, it means losing one of our core people, and at home it means kids losing their mom before they could even realize what was happening.

As friends and coworkers, we are rallying behind Imelda and her family to help out with anything we can generously give to help support Cecilia, Sydney, and Gilbert through this extremely difficult time.

Any and all donations would be greatly appreciated.

Much Love,

Annemarie