Deborah Lorenzo

Deborah's early life was good. She grew up, as an only child, in San Antonio, Texas, and when she graduated from Edison High School in 1969, she began attending the University of Houston, pursuing a degree in history.

September 28th, 1971, two days before her birthday, was the beginning of a very difficult time in Deborah's life. Her mother, Mary, committed suicide. The next year Deborah dropped out of school. During this time she met and married Gene Grosscup, who was unfaithful and became violently abusive in the extreme. She became pregnant and gave birth to her only son, Dylan Grosscup, on August 7th, 1975. Deborah tried to escape her husband's violence shortly after the baby was born; however, Gene refused to allow her to end the marriage and kidnapped Dylan in order to force her to return, which she did. She later managed to escape but almost immediately fell into another bad relationship when she married a local police officer and became Deborah Sparks. Luckily, even though her new husband was also unfaithful and moderately abusive, he allowed her to end the marriage.

Deborah was on her own at this point because her father, Charlie, had died from lupus by the time her son, Dylan, was 2 years old. Deborah had very limited support from her mother's sisters, Betty and Gloria, at this time, but she didn't have a degree, so it was very difficult to make ends meet. There were days when there was simply nothing to eat. The days when there was some, but not enough food, Deborah always sacrificed her own portion so that her son could eat. Deborah was forced to still interact with her ex-husband Gene via visitation with their shared son. Deborah struggled with severe depression. Deborah's son was diagnosed with severe learning disabilities and speech impediments and, due to childhood trauma, was only able to attend public school with severely disabled children.

After this shocking string of tragedies, Deborah began to find normalcy again. She found good friends. She stumbled through a few more difficult relationships, but none were as bad as those that preceded. In fact, during one first date, a man forced her to smuggle two beers into a showing of the Empire Strikes Back and later bribed her 5-year-old son with candy. It was M&M's. They were good. That man, Joe, was definitely a crappy first date, but after a rocky start, he loved her more than anything in the world. He cared for her son like he was his own child. He took care of her and helped her to find joy again. On March 19th, 1989, Joe and Deborah got married, and they remained married until his death on February 16th, 2017.

Joe and Deborah shared a passion for books and science that they instilled in their son. In the 3rd grade she moved to the Klein school district, where the school district gave Dylan an IQ test, and based on the results, they removed him from remedial coursework and placed him into an honors program. Deborah didn't finish her degree in history, but she did teach her son the importance of education. Dylan Grosscup received a degree in Chemical Engineering and still works in that field today. Furthermore, her first grandson, Dorian Lorenzo, received a degree in Electrical Engineering which is almost as good as Chemical Engineering, where he too continues to work in the field.

Deborah, who was an only child, is survived by her son, Dylan Grosscup, also an only child; spouse, Judit Bernath; and her 8 grandchildren, Dorian Lorenzo and spouse Loretta Lorenzo, Jolie Lorenzo, Josephine Lorenzo, Mary-Lola Grosscup, Karoly Grosscup, Spartacus Grosscup, and Achilles Grosscup.