Liway Puno

Hi all,

Thank you for loving Liway as much as we did, and for contributing to what mattered to her most: the legacy she created for her children.

For 18+ years, and 17 with us, Liway lived and worked outside of her home country, and away from her family, seeing them only once in person during that time, but staying in touch with their lives nearly every evening over FaceTime.

More than anything, she wanted to see them one last time, and meet her granddaughter, which we had hoped would happen on March 13, but she became too sick to fly, and actually passed just hours before that flight would have taken off. She went Home, just not home to her family first.

She never complained, and was quite possibly the most positive person any of us knew. We could tell stories for hours about her amazing cooking, her begging us to beat her at cards again (she just loved to play), her gardening, her love of Marshall's shopping sprees (and always to send everything home or buy us small gifts -- she loved a good deal!), collecting sea shells at the beach, trips to the mountains or Disney, or just down-the-road trips to the Asian store so she could cook more food for all of us, her friends and the hospital staff caring for her!, how much she spoiled the dogs, or every single child that walked into our houses, and most of all how she loved her own children, and Avery and Sadie, like her own.

And though she always asked about everyone else (first, asking if you were fed, and if not, what she could cook you), she loved to tell you all about her family. Topping that list were her kids -- her eldest, Daniel, her twins, Dania and Danica, and her granddaughter, Anika. She was so very proud of them and the lives they were building. She refused to give up hope -- even in January -- that she would win her cancer battle and see them "in a year or two" (which is what she always said, no matter if you asked 10 years ago or in January of this year) , but she also always had a new goal in mind for what she wanted to make sure her children had in order to be successful...

David and I are passionate about making sure the twins have what they need to finish school this year. But she had more wishes for them and the legacy she wanted to leave them -- among them a car to drive home from work so they didn't have to rely on public transportation at night, and any supplies they needed to get started in their fields (both in public service: soon-to-be a police officer and a nurse).

We will work with Ara, her good friend, and Liway's brother, Alejandro, to get your contributions to her children, should you wish to give something in her memory.

With love, Abby and David