Maria Millan

Maria Antonia Millan was born in Yuma, Arizona on November 4, 1928 to Dolores G. Muñoz and Maria V. Muñoz. (But ask her where she was from and she’d certainly tell you, “San Diego.”) She was one of a large, blended family, including Julia, Eufemia, Susana, Gabriel, Mike, Juanita, Ray, Virginia, Dolores and Henry moved to California with her family when she was about 12 years old. After arriving in San Diego, she first attended San Miguel Middle School until June of 1944 and then graduated from San Diego High School in 1947. Later, she would meet a young man named Antonio Alvarez Millan who happened to be walking by one day when she was standing outside the house of her good friend, Norma. They were eventually married on June 16, 1951 and had 5 children of their own: Martha, Michael, Ana, Victor and Patricia. Maria raised and cared for her 5 children, was a devoted wife to Antonio, rarely ever missed the opportunity to sing with the Our Lady of Guadalupe church choir, and, as most people know, still found time to do more crossword puzzles than someone with even half of those responsibilities would otherwise have time for. Michael, Ana and Victor later had children of their own, which brought her 4 grandchildren, Eric, Jennie, Christopher and Vanessa, into her life. This is where I came in and, this is the point in time from which I can say I knew one of the strongest, most loving and amazing women I have ever encountered – my grandmother. I was very fortunate to live next door to her for most of my life. Going “to grandma’s house” was as simple as walking out the door. When you came into her presence, you always felt like the single most important, and only other, person in the room with her. The smile across her face when she’d see us walking in the door was indescribable. You couldn’t help but feel so incredibly loved in that moment – all before she even said a single word. She and my grandpa were an incredible pair of people who always reminded you of all the good there is in the world. Things were not always easy. Unfortunately, she (and we) lost Antonio far too early to cancer in August of 1994 and her son, Michael, in April of 2010. However, despite the magnitude of such losses, that didn’t stop my grandma from pushing forward, rising up to be our role model, shower us with love and continue to remind us all what true generosity is. She would travel to Europe, around the U.S. (admittedly, mostly to see me as I gallivanted across the country for school and work), sing regularly with the church choir, raise money at the church festival (which included making a seemingly insurmountable number of cascarones, all by hand), make some of the most delicious tamales you’ve ever tasted every Christmas, and still find time to fit in a crossword puzzle here and there. And this is just to name a few. Let’s not also forget she did all this while always looking amazing. Anyone who knew my grandma knew that she’d have her outfit for an upcoming event picked out at least a week in advance. She loved to dress up, and she’d never miss a date with the beauty salon to get her hair done. She contracted ALS, or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” during the spring of 2015. However, this didn’t stop her from doing many of the things she loved to do or making the lives of her family and friends better every day. She was strong-willed until the very end. (Just ask how many times she tried to get out of a hospital bed and leave because she had had enough of being there.) Despite everything, she never lost her sharp wit or her sense of humor. I distinctly remember the two last times I saw my grandma. The first time, I leaned over her bed, told her I loved her and she put her hand on my shoulder and leaned her head against mine. The last time, I leaned over once again, told her I loved her, kissed her forehead and in a few short hours, she would be gone. But even though she may have passed on, she’s not truly gone. No one with such a larger than life personality and love for everyone can ever truly be gone. And she passed on the way she always did things – on her terms, on the anniversary of the day she married Antonio 64 years earlier.