Esther Avalos

Esther Nunez Avalos was born on August 10, 1937 in San Diego,CA to Dolores Rodriquez and Pedro Nunez, both of Mexico. She had one older brother Rene and is survived by three younger siblings, Ben (Toto), Stella and Irene. She helped to raise her younger siblings cooking and looking after them following her parent’s divorce.

Esther grew up in Logan Heights attending Our Lady of Guadalupe and Logan Elementary, Memorial Jr High and San Diego High School, later earning her Cosmetology License. She met Paul “Victor”Avalos in 1956 at a party while he was on leave from the Army and the two corresponded, writing letters and fell in love. She said that she was looking for a man who was “good to his mom and went to church” and Victor fit the bill. They married on January 25, 1958 and had seven children. She was a devoted wife and mother. Although her own childhood was somewhat devoid of a traditional family life she embraced her new role as wife and mom making her own way, creating new and lasting traditions.

When Esther decided that she wanted a car and there wasn’t any money in the budget, she got a job at Moody’s Lunch Service on Market Street working nights making sandwiches. The older kids remember taking individual tours of her new work place that ended with a freshly baked pastry and an orange juice. Victor recalls making midnight runs to Moody’s on his motorcycle with his buddies from work and being loaded up with assorted goodies. When anyone had a school field trip scheduled where a sack lunch was required, she would bring home big bags of potato chips and other yummy items to add to the sack.

Esther’s career with San Diego City Schools started when she began volunteering at Mead Elementary School serving lunch and monitoring the playground. She was later hired on there as an Instructional Aide. She also worked at Juarez Elementary where she helped do interpreting for the parents of bilingual students in the school in addition to working with the teacher in the classroom. When she retired after 27 years with the city she was working at O’Farrell Charter School, one of the original Charter Schools in San Diego-in fact when President Clinton visited the school in 1995 after coming to San Diego to sign the Goals 2000 Education Bill she was star struck and it was one of the biggest highlights of her career. If only she would have invited him home to dinner she could have finally used her fine china, she was saving it for when the president visited. Also, while at O’Farrell she volunteered to chaperone 6th Grade camping trips including one to Palomar Mt and even convinced Victor to co-chaperone with her. He almost regretted it though when he heard a loud, noisy growl outside the cabin they were asleep in, worried that it may be a bear. Turned out it was only Esther snoring, much to Victor’s relief.

Esther, a devout Catholic, joined St Rita’s Church in 1958 and was very active in the parish over the years. She volunteered at the church bazaars and ran the Cork Gun booth for several years recruiting her kids to work there. She was also a member of the Altar Society working with the ladies of the St Jude Sodality. She and Victor were regulars at 730 AM mass on Sundays and celebrated both their 25th and 50th Wedding Anniversary at St Rita’s Church.

Esther is survived by seven children, Paul Jr, Greg, Teresa, Sami, Punkin, Mike and Suzi. She was a dedicated mother but she ran a very tight ship. There was always plenty to do around the household and everyone had assigned chores. Esther made sure that all her children learned to swim and sent them to Colina Del Sol Pool every year for 2 sessions. The girls had to learn to sew and cook and help make dinners for the family. The boys had duty on Sunday mornings, helping cook bacon for breakfast, mixing up canned orange juice and doing the dishes. She made sure everyone had extra-curricular activities they were involved in that ranged from Altar boys, Cub-scouts, guitar lessons, softball, football, volleyball, volley-tennis, CYO, cheerleading, swimming, wrestling, drill team and Spring Sing to name just a few. She worked hard and sacrificed to send all seven children to Catholic School from 1st thru 12th grade, with the boys all graduating from St Augustine’s and the girls from Our Lady of Peace, thus providing them with the best education possible and an opportunity to do anything in life that they set their sights on. She was proud of all her kids.

Esther started many family traditions over the years: homemade eggnog for New Year’s Eve, Valentine goodies every February 14th, Easter baskets every spring, camping in Tecate, MX every 4th of July and then Mt Laguna for the Perseid Meteor Showers every August. She organized the first Tamale Day in Nunez-Avalos family history with her siblings even though she had never made a tamale before or been taught how, a tradition that still continues every first Saturday of December. Christmas brought a tree but never earlier than one week before Christmas-and then it had to be recut and soaked in water overnight outside before it could be brought in for decorating. Stockings always had an assortment of nuts in the shell and an orange. Visits were made to both sides of the family, Avalos and Nunez, to celebrate every Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. On birthdays she would prepare a special meal selected by the birthday boy or girl. Monday Night Dinners began when the kids were all adults and every Monday night for 25 years the family gathered together to share a meal or celebrate a birthday or other special event. She would pull out her calendar at the end of the meal, after dessert, to make her “Announcements” keeping everyone updated on upcoming family events.

Esther, or Nana, had 11 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren and used to invite them over to the house for her Annual 1wk Summer Grandkids Get-Away, sometimes having eight kids there at one time. She would plan events for them to do. Sometimes the kids would jump on the Trolley for a ride to the Theatre for a movie where she would produce paper bowls and home-popped popcorn. There were work parties up at the property in Alpine and the kids would help out with the watering of the trees that were planted there. She would make them the best bologna and mustard sandwiches in the world and fill up an inflatable pool on the back porch for them to play in.

Esther and Victor were happily married for 57 years. They did a lot of traveling and camping over the years visiting family and friends up and down the West Coast. They celebrated their anniversary for many years by driving to Las Vegas for a week and then continuing on to Wickenburg, AZ for Gold Rush Days. When they were first married, Esther, trying to be a good wife attempted to provide Victor with a well-rounded meal for dinner and added a new menu item: a salad. Of course she included his beans on every plate, which were mandatory, but finally after a week of salads he demanded to know: did she think he was a rabbit? He eventually accepted the new item and can eat one now without any problem at all!

Esther was a strong, dependable woman, a devoted wife and a tuff Mama Bear. She always practiced the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you. She used to say that in life you were lucky to be able to count on your family and if you could also count on your friends it was an extra blessing. Esther was a very blessed woman.