Enella Sonnier Lopez

NEW IBERIA – A Mass of Christian Burial will be conducted for Mrs. Laz Lopez, the former Enella Sonnier, age 95, at 10:00 am Saturday, September 26, 2015 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church with Fr. Garrett Savoie officiating. Helana Bodin and Enella Broussard will serve as readers for the mass. Interment will follow at Memorial Park Mausoleum.

Visitation will be held from 3:00 pm until 9:00 pm on Friday with a Rosary at 6:30 pm. The funeral home will reopen at 8:00 am on Saturday until service time.

A native of Vermilion Parish and resident of New Iberia, Mrs. Lopez passed away at 12:30 am on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 at her residence.

Mrs. Lopez was a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church for many years and enjoyed spending time outdoors gardening in her vegetable and flower gardens. She was an amazing seamstress who handmade for her family wedding dresses, communion dresses and baby clothes that have been passed down from generation to generation. Her favorite pastime was hand making patchwork quilts for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

She is survived by two daughters, Betty Romero and Barbara Meyers and husband Darryl; two sons, Carrol Lopez and wife Belver and Steve Lopez and wife Terry all of New Iberia; ten grandchildren, Helana Bodin, Debra Wyatt, Adele Bodin, Yvette Romero, Jackie Kennedy, Angela Williams, Monica Choate, Chad LeBlanc, Cherie Segura and Brooke Lopez; thirty great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Laz Lopez; son, Donald Lopez; parents, Jedeon and Victorine Guillot Sonnier; two sisters, Ellana Duhon and Emella Granger; eight brothers, Ursin Sonnier, Leonce Sonnier, Paul Sonnier, Anatole Sonnier, Clement Sonnier, Placide Sonnier, Luke Sonnier and Jules Sonnier; son in law Alvin Romero and twin grandsons, Kevin John Lopez and Kim James Lopez.

Pallbearers will be Chad LeBlanc, Jared Wyatt, Wesley Bodin, Nicholas Bodin, Luke Latiolais, Ezra Choate, Colton Williams. Carrol Lopez, Steve Lopez, Purvis Picard, Samuel Kennedy, III and Darryl Meyers will serve as honorary pallbearers.

The family would like to extend their sincere appreciation to AAA Home Health and Bridgeway Hospice for all of the care and support shown to Mrs. Lopez and her family.

To view on-line obituary, video tribute and sign the guest register, please visit www.evangelinefuneralhome.com.

Evangeline Funeral Homes, Inc. of New Iberia is in charge of arrangements.

Eulogy read by Helana Bodin

Our Family would like to thank you all for being here and for you being in the life of our very special Enella Sonnier Lopez. Too often someone is thought of as a success in life by having an important job or an achievement that brings you money and fame. But what success should be measured by is Love. How Many People You Love and How Many People Love You Back. If you do that Momo was the most successful person you ever knew. And let me tell you, That Lady Was Easy To Love!!

Born to a hard working, honest couple, Victorine and Jedeon Sonnier June 14, 1920. She was the youngest child. Momo had two sisters and eight brothers. She was especially close to her sisters. Showing the example of family love, that your sisters are your first friends in life. Momo’s family lived in rural Vermillion Parish on a farm. Everyone had a job to keep the family feed and well. They grew their own food, cooked and canned everything to make it last. If there was extra of a crop, it was shared with the neighbor families. She told us once that her family went a whole year without ever seeing any money. Not even one penny. Those experiences never left her and made her the person that she was. She learned how to sew back then. Which would become a talent she had for her whole life. She received her last sewing machine on her 90th birthday. Which is incredible! Her skill was very unique. You could tell her what you wanted, and she would quickly go cut out a pattern on her kitchen table from old newspapers, then sew it up and it was ready quickly. Her more detailed more intricate work is still wearable to this day. Her patchwork quilts are treasured by all of us lucky enough to get one, because of the love she put into each one.

She meet the love of her life when she was 16 years old. She had finished school, which was not a common thing back then, and started the only paying job she ever had at a seafood plant in Delcambre with some of her family. The day she meet Laz Joseph Lopez was special. He was from the area and knew her brothers. She told us once, she knew right away he was the man for her. And we asked her what did Popa say about that. She said , “Well I was the one for him and he was going to marry me, only Popa did not know that yet!! The wedding was a quiet affair, they were married during mass. She said she did not wear a big dress, Not even a cake was served. You just went home after and started your new life. She had five children. Her first born Donald, died as an infant. She felt that loss her whole life. She spoke of him often. As terrible as that was, she did not let it change her. She was not bitter, it was just part of her story. She went on to have her other children. Betty and Carol were born in the country. Barbara and Steve were born in the somewhat bigger town of New Iberia. Her and Poppa moved there for a better job he was able to get. She continued her loving ways of caring for her family. Which was not always easy. Popa’s new job took him far away from home for long periods of time. She managed it all with a smile and her rosary beads. My earliest memories are of her praying quietly in her living room while we took naps on her quilts on the floor. After Poppa retired, they traveled a little and took more vacations. The summer trips to Grand Isle were a family favorite. We would pile in hot station wagons and drive down for swimming and fishing in the special brown water that Grand Isle is known for. It was here Momo earned her nick name Dirty Sally. She would wear her straw hat and dark brown clothes to the beach. She did this so you could not tell or mind the mud on you as you fished and played on the beach. Those Memories Are Magical!!

She showed her loving ways again when Popa became sick. She cared for him at home, which was important to her. After he died, we surely thought one of us would have to move in with her. She had never lived alone. She went from living with her parents to living with her husband for 80 years. Well she had news for us. She told us she was going to be fine. She said for us to visit often but to go home. She was going to have to get use to her life without Popa and that was all there was to it. Once again showing all of us a lesson of love and courage. In fact we never had to look very far for an example of what a Real Lady was. She was always there, quietly doing what she did best, Loving Us, Caring For Us, and Helping Us. She was our first example of a Multi Tasker. She could have a house full of kids, while cooking and cleaning, in her teased red hair, in a dress she had sewed, with matching earrings and a colorful pin on her collar. I swear I could have just eaten a big meal, but something about walking into her house, every time made me want to eat a cookie that she always had waiting on the cabinet. She was also the keeper of secrets. You could tell her anything and it went into that vault she had and was never brought up again. She had the unique ability to make you feel as if you were the most important person in the room. She loved to dance with Popa. She would sew all her formal clothes to wear on Sunday afternoon to go with him dancing at Pangays. She told us often, she had the perfect figure for rocking babies to sleep. She had a built in inner spring mattress that babies loved to sleep on. She loved her flower garden and vegetable gardens that she had in her yard. Can you imagine all the events that happened during her life? She lived in times of many wars, depression and the rise of technology in our lives.

In the end when it was her turn to be cared for, her lessons of love were evident again in how her own two amazing daughters , Betty and Barbara, cared for her at her own home, just like she always wanted. Their loving care along with two dear friends, Geraldine and Dwayne. It was so sweet to see that.

The only thing she did not tell us is how, do we go on without her.

She was loved and loved back for 95 years.

That is no small accomplishment.

Do you want me to tell you how a small, country girl, who never learned to drive a car, who did not have a paying job since 1938, became the most successful person I ever knew?

It was because of LOVE.