Lilia Garza

Lily was full of love for her family, quick to smile and give a hug.

She was born on May 1, 1944, the ninth of eleven children. Lily’s childhood home was in the Manchester neighborhood of Houston, but as migrant workers she and her family moved often, making school attendance limited. Yet report cards showed her to be a strong student with a natural intelligence.

She believed education was the way to achieve a better future for herself and her family. Perhaps this is why as a wife with four children she went back to school to get her GED and often smiled when telling us she was a college student after taking a sociology course at San Jacinto Community College. She later worked as a teacher’s aide at Blessed Sacrament School inspiring us by her example.

Lily’s greatest love was Israel, who she married at the age of 18. They dated accompanied by young cousins, nieces, and nephews who served as chaperones. In 1962, they married and started their family. They celebrated 62 years of marriage in May of this year. Over the years they lived in second ward, built a home in Brookside Village and bought a “rancho” in Mexico. No matter where Lily lived, she was often found in the kitchen, the heart of the home. She was an excellent cook who took great pride in preparing food for family and friends.

Lily and Israel shared a lifetime and were rarely apart. Even when her illness took much of her memory she would ask for her husband or esposo. She insisted on being by his side until the very end when her hospital bed was placed so she could still see him when she woke and went to sleep.

She is survived by her loving husband, Israel Montemayor Garza; her adoring children, Sonia Garza-Monarchi (Michael Monarchi), Ricardo Garza (Deborah Escareno), Melissa Garza-Benavides (Gaston Benavides), and Katherine Garza and by her greatest joy, her grandchildren, Ricardo Israel Garza (Christen Garza), Isabella Giselle Benavides, Leopoldo Perez Garza, and Carina Sofia Benavides, and her great-grandchildren, Jonah Gray Garza and Nora Rose Garza; and extended family.

Lily was kind, generous, loving, non-judgmental, an independent thinker, open-minded, and pragmatic. Lily managed to touch hundreds of lives by her simple acts of kindness, quiet grace and generous servings of tasty food. She loved unconditionally. She will be missed and remembered by those whose lives she touched.

The family would like to thank Gigi Galaviz for helping care for “Miss Lily” for the last four years and her husband, Vincent Galaviz, who helped with all types of home maintenance and helped carry, move and made mom smile in her last days. They have become part of our family. We can never repay them for caring for mom with such love and affection.

We would also like to thank Mauricia Reyes, who learned and prepared some of Lilia’s favorite recipes and Ana Laura Montejo Rosas and Misty Gonzalez who helped care for mom with great tenderness.