After more than a decade of treatments, surgeries, anxiety, pain and brief and joyous moments of hope, Carolina "Carol" Hortensia Garcia (née Villanueva) lost her lengthy battle with cancer and coronary disease at 5:59am on February 9th, 2025. She was 84 years young.
Carol had 16 (yes, 16) brothers and sisters whom she loved dearly. She is preceded in death by nine of these siblings: Caesar Villanueva, Elisa (Susan) Pitcl (née Villanueva), Catherine (Cay) Aguilar (née Villanueva), Christina Pete (née Villanueva), Charles Victor Villanueva, Ben (Joaquín) Villanueva, Christopher Adrian Villanueva, Edwin Julian Villanueva, and Edward (Ronald) Villanueva. She is also preceded in death by her mother, Mary Villanueva (née Gomez); her father, Francisco Villanueva; and her husband, Rolando Garcia.
Carol was a kind soul. She loved to laugh. She loved dancing, music, and cooking. She loved watching Coronation Street, Telenovelas, Crime Dramas, and Spongebob Square pants. She loved her two children Dina Garcia, Joni Garcia-Lucido, and her grandchild Marissa Garcia. She loved her children’s partners, whom she always affectionately referred to as her Mijos...... Kenneth Dulinksi and Steven Lucido. She also has countless nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins, of whom she fondly shared stories of.
Carol was many things in life. She was a dancer, a farmhand, a nurse’s aide, a clothing model, a factory worker, a cook, a crafter, a housewife, and a student. She was a strong advocate for civil, immigrant and migrant workers’ rights. She was unwavering in the face of hardship and health scares. Her doctors unanimously referred to her as a tough lady, and a fighter. Most importantly, she was an amazing mother, grandmother, sister, niece, daughter and friend. She will be greatly missed by us all.
In lieu of flowers, we ask for assistance in recuperating part of the costs of her burial. A GoFund me has been created (https://gofund.me/60e7677d)
Or, consider making a charitable donation in her name to: www.borderangels.org/donate.html
At this time, the family has chosen to privately remember Carolina.
No coward soul is mine
By Emily Bronte
No coward soul is mine
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven's glories shine
And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear
O God within my breast
Almighty ever-present Deity
Life, that in me hast rest,
As I Undying Life, have power in Thee
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts, unutterably vain,
Worthless as withered weeds
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thy infinity,
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of Immortality.
With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates and rears
Though earth and moon were gone
And suns and universes ceased to be
And Thou wert left alone
Every Existence would exist in thee
There is not room for Death
Nor atom that his might could render void
Since thou art Being and Breath
And what thou art may never be destroyed.