Millie Cagan

Millie Cagan On the evening of June 19, 2019, at 5:33 pm, Millie took her last breath, surrounded by the love of her family, in the home of her daughter, in Mesa, Arizona. Millie was 74 years young. She was a devoted Wife, Mom, Granny, Daughter, Sister, Aunt and Friend. Millie was born December 10, 1944, in New York City, to Cruz Maria Lopez. Millie’s biological father, Juan Antonio, passed away in World War II while Cruz was pregnant with Millie. Cruz then went on to marry Damian Robles, who raised Millie as his own. Millie was raised with an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Jean. In September, 1962, as Freshman in college, Millie met and fell in love with Rich, who would become her husband and lifelong partner. They married on September 4, 1965 and had their first child, Jeff, on February 23, 1968. Later that same year Millie, Rich and Jeff went on a once in a lifetime adventure and moved to Africa for Rich’s work. They stayed there for two years before moving back to New York and having their daughter, Tracy, on January 1, 1971. In September, 1973, the family took to the road to make their forever home in Arizona. Millie chose to be a stay at home Mom. The most important job in the world, if you asked her opinion. She was an amazing Mom. All the neighborhood kids wanted to hang at “Jeff and Tracy’s house”. In 1986 Millie and Rich began taking in foster children, because Millie loved being a Mom. Robert Cagan, the youngest of the three children, was adopted in 1991 at the age of 6, after being with the family since the age of 2. Millie loved all things travel. She loved going to new places, seeing new things and trying new foods. She loved Hawaii, the Caribbean Islands and Mexico. She loved going anywhere! She would often say, “traveling to an adjoining state is not a vacation, it’s a weekend away”. She’d take it, but it didn’t count as vacation. She would also say, “on each vacation I like to try something daring”. She travelled to China and Thailand, and rode an elephant. On one Caribbean trip she even walked up a waterfall. Millie is survived by her husband, Rich, three children, Jeff, Tracy and Robert, and three grandsons, Jonathan, Tyler and Jacob. She is also survived by her brother, Robert, sister, Jean, and a combined 9 nieces and 1 nephew. Millie was greeted on The Other Side by her parents, a brother, one niece and one nephew. At the age of 69, after her first bout with breast cancer, she even got a tattoo on her right leg with a pink ribbon hanging from a screw, because she said, “SCREW CANCER”. The May 2019 diagnosis of metastasized liver cancer, however, proved to be too much. Millie fought cancer with everything she had. She gave it her best from her first scan and treatment to her last breath. Millie was kind, caring, loving, vibrant, happy, generous with her time and heart, patient, loyal, feisty, funny and spunky. She had a love for her grandsons that could be matched by no other love. She often asked, “why didn’t I have grandsons first?”. She will be so greatly missed by everyone who knew her. She is loved by so many people around the world, literally. Heaven must have needed someone spectacular on June 19, 2019, and spectacular is what they got!