Tribute to Mrs. Santa: A Life of Love

It is with the heaviest of heartache that I create this GoFundMe for my mother. On May 23, 2025, at 1:20 pm, our precious mother, Mrs. Santa Gallardo Northup, passed away in her sleep. She was 88 years old. She was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 2017; she survived a COPD-induced massive heart attack in 2018; she caught COVID-19 twice, in 2020 and 2021; and she learned to live with type 2 diabetes, her A1-C was well controlled. The last six months were the toughest months of her life. She made it through a series of infections, each one more powerful than the previous, which eventually overwhelmed her immune system.

She was mother to five boys and two girls. She was blessed with fourteen grandchildren and thirty-four great-grandchildren.

After spending the previous evening with all of her surviving children, she fell asleep never to awaken again.

She was the rock and mortar of our family. She showed us how to love, be trustful, be loyal, be kind, and generous. She showed us the truest sense of the meaning of family, friendship, sacrifice, and hard work!

If you were friends with any of her children, you knew that you were always welcome in our home! She bore seven kids, but she was mother to many more!

She had six brothers and two sisters. She was blessed with many cousins, and she was Auntie Santa to countless nephews and nieces, and she always had time for all of them.

She was preceded by her husband, Mickey; her youngest son, Timothy; her grandson, Timothy; and all of her brothers and sisters.

She will be truly missed by her loved ones, and she will be thought of often by many.

You know, with her track record of defying the odds against her and how well she looked on Thursday, the twenty-second of May, it was a shock to be called very early Friday morning telling us she was in dire straits, that she was not going to make it. We truly are shocked!

Now we need help sending her home with a proper funeral that is befitting her. Anything you can donate will be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance!