Good afternoon, family and friends.
It is an honor to be here today to celebrate the life of Martha Mederos.
To my sister and I, she was our Aunt, our “Tia Martha”. To my Father, she was “always there”, but to my Grandmother, Martha’s sister, she was the world.
Martha would drop everything she was doing to run to your side or take care of anyone and anything you ever needed.
She was born into a family of 11 children. Martha was a very beautiful girl and she was so special.
Her skin was so appealing and she had a radiant and welcoming smile. Her father used to say,
”she had the most beautiful color that never fades.” She truly had beautiful complexion on the inside and out.—
My Tia was a strong woman. Martha attended beauty school and she married at a young age. She was an example. She survived her husband who suffered heart surgery and died on the operation table. They were married for twenty years together before his death and he blessed her with four loving children. Her strength doubled at the death when her youngest daughter died due to Lupus; a chronic autoimmune disease that damages the inside of the body. But she never gave up. She never backed down. She was a leader; she was strong for the rest of the family even with her Husband and daughter gone. She helped raise her granddaughters and was always a mother figure.
The bond between my grandmother and my aunt was always present. She loved to visit; she would say to my grandmother, “with you I feel good, I feel happy I don’t have to worry about anything when I’m with you.” Martha loved to cook. My grandmother told me, when my father was little she would cook for him. “Today we are going to cook whatever Armando wants to eat!” That was her attitude towards life. She always had a positive attitude and loved everyone. She flew several times from Guadalajara. Take care of us at a moment’s notice when times were hard. She demonstrated love. My aunt had a sense of humor; she was kind she was very much a hard worker always working extra for my grandmother even when she repeatedly said “no”.
Last year my Grandparents went and had a little getaway to our timeshare in Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara to visit my family. Just like always they stayed at my Tia’s house. Her door was always open to the whole family sleepovers all the time with the cousins. Her house was always filled with laughter never a moment of silence even up to the hour at 2 in the morning.
They stayed a total of four weeks together, enjoying each other’s company and little trips to the mall. Things they loved to do together.
Unexpectly, the day before my grandparents left to go back to San Francisco my aunt died surrounded by family in my grandmothers arms. She died in her sisters arms. A bond so close between sisters that lasted until the very last moments of Martha’s life. Until her last breath was taken.
I never had a full conversation with my Tia. Although we did not speak the same language, I never talked to her about the weather, or simple thing she loves or little things about her.
But I can say that Martha Medero’s strength, love and compassion was evident her entire life in her actions. She “walked the walk” so to speak. The bond that she had with my grandmother is something I will always aspire to the rest of my life.
While on the phone with my Grandmother she said, “ I think about her everyday and I don’t understand why my sister is gone away, she only says, “God knows when he takes you”
Martha Mederos would want us to mirror images of her heart. And she will live in our hearts forever.
Thank you all for coming.
