Hospital in Glendora, California at 72 years old. He was born in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines on October 27, 1947 to Rosario Garing Mendoza and Abner Naranjo Jornada. He attended Pasay City Academy for many years and graduated high school from Philippine Union
College Academy in the Class of 1964.
Abner met his future wife, Vilma Senson Hechanova, in 1960 when they lived across the street from each other on Leland Drive in Quezon City. He attended Mountain View College for one year before emigrating to the United States in 1969. Abner married Vilma, his high school sweetheart, on December 26, 1971 in Glendale, California. Throughout their 48-year marriage, Abner always maintained that he would carry out the chore of vacuuming their home so Vilma did not have to wrestle with the vacuum cleaner.
Abner was certified as a respiratory therapy technician in 1975 and began training in the new field of cardiovascular perfusion in 1977. Abner passed the American Society of
Cardiovascular Perfusion boards on his first attempt in 1978, joining a small field of about 300 perfusionists worldwide at that time. After the births of their children, Chari Delle and Alvin Abner, Vilma and Abner moved to Grand Blanc, MI in 1979, where they resided for eight years.
During that time, Abner completed his Bachelor of Arts degree from Spring Arbor College in
1987. The Jornada family then moved to Southern California in the summer of 1987. Abner and
Vilma eventually moved into their dream home in 2005 in Riverside, California.
After Abner retired in 2018, he and Vilma lived out their 47-year-old dream RV trip. From
May to October 2019, they visited many friends and relatives as they circumnavigated the United States and southern Canada. Abner and Vilma’s final RV trip together was spent with their grandchildren Avery Rhys and Caedon Román to Morro Bay, California in March 2020.
