Elsa Ganzon was born to Efrain and Livier Leiva on November 7, 1983 in Northridge, California. She was one of two children, her younger brother Jessi being the other one. The two were inseparable, each other being best friends.
The Leiva family lived in Southern California for most of Elsa's life before moving to Las Vegas, NV, right before her senior year in high school. After graduating, she went to UNLV for a time, but ultimately could not finish. She had medical complications, missed too much time from her studies, and had financial constraints at home. At one point, she was working multiple jobs in order to pay for life’s necessities and had to contribute to the family. Although frustrated with herself, she remained determined to live a better life. In 2006, her life was about to change.
At the time, she was working at Suncoast Hotel and Casino as a cage cashier. She had a chance encounter with Ronald Ganzon, one of the newer employees that worked in the warehouse underneath the casino. They were merely acquaintances, as he would go to the cage to sign in and out for the keys to the warehouse, while she was the one to record and secure the transaction. She was seeing someone else at the moment, and so was Ronald. But after some time, their respective relationships ended, each one distraught over their individual break-ups. And then one day, Elsa reached out to Ronald on MySpace and asked for him to go on a bowling date. The rest, as they say, is history.
Elsa and Ronald moved to Northern California to pursue new career paths. Not too long after moving to Vallejo, CA, they exchanged vows at San Francisco City Hall and officially tied the knot. Eventually, Ronald became an EMT and was able to get into PA school at Touro University California. Elsa played the supporting role throughout this endeavor, working at Kaiperm North Bay Federal Credit Union. After graduating, the two moved to Clearlake, California for Ronald’s first job as a PA. Elsa felt at this point that it was “her turn” to pursue her dreams, and so enrolled in the local community college. She could not decide on what to do, as she had intentions of being a global translator, an interior decorator, a scrapbooker, or a business owner/entrepreneur. They did not stay in Clearlake, CA, as it was lonely and far away, and so her dreams were put on hold, as they decided to move back to Las Vegas, NV in order to be closer to family.
Although they have been together for 12 years, the two of them decided to hold off on having kids until they felt financially secure. The other looming question that haunted her was of her previous encounter with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a young teen. She was told that the chances of conceiving any healthy, viable children were very slim; due to the cancer, due to the chemotherapy, and due to the radiation. The couple spoke about this many times in the past, even considering adoption if this were the case. To complicate matters even further, she was already in her 30’s with underlying medical issues, and she would have to extend the wait on pursuing her career. But she made her decision. In 2017, they tried, and on July 18, 2018, Magdalena Leiva Ganzon was born.
Elsa was the happiest she could be. She was closer to home, married to a loving husband, mothering a beautiful, energetic daughter, and held a stable position at FirstService Residential. They purchased their “forever home” in West Henderson, NV and began to plan out the next steps in their journey. Tragically, 2020 was the year that everything changed.
Her brother Jessi lost his life in January of 2020. She had lost her best friend. She was consumed with sorrow, anguish, and defeat. Sadly, Elsa began to have medical complications of her own and was diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer on November 3rd, 2020. She endured 3 different lines of chemotherapy, before being referred to MD Anderson in Houston, TX in order to participate in a clinical trial, as the cancer was becoming resistant to the treatments. After 11 months of treatment and trials, her labs, CT scans, and PET scans confirmed that the cancer was no longer responding to the medicine. There were talks of trying one more chemotherapy treatment and sending referrals to UCLA and the Mayo Clinic. But at this point, the cancer had already wreaked havoc on her liver and it began to affect her brain.
There was a last ditch effort to begin checking off things on her bucket list, the foremost being a Disneyland trip in November for her birthday. Unfortunately, she had already lost the ability to walk, the strength in her arms and legs, and as well as her cognitive function and speech. She continued to fight, but she ultimately lost her battle and passed away on the morning of October 15, 2021 in her home, just three weeks shy of her 38th birthday.
Elsa is survived by her parents, Efrain and Livier Leiva, her husband, Ronald Ganzon, and her daughter, Magdalena Leiva Ganzon. She is also survived by her nieces and nephews: Jru, Rayana, Jayda, Jessi Jr, Riley, Jean, Rayne, and Vincent.
She was a loving wife, daughter, mother, sister, and aunt. She did not have many friends, as she was more of an introvert. But the friends that she did make, were ones that you don’t forget. She was compassionate about scrapbooking, home design, and style. She was determined, strong-willed, and uncompromising, especially when it came to ascending the corporate ladder. She was head-strong. She knows what she wants, leads with her heart, and never leaves it to chance or regret. She had a beautiful soul, inherently pure, but delicately fragile: one that only those closest to her knew about and felt. As driven as she was in the outside world, she was a homebody in every sense of the word: happy to sit, cuddle, and enjoy the company of family and friends. She will be truly missed by many, but loved eternally.
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