Dumitru Ilea

Born on October 23rd 1948 in the village of Horea, county of Satu Mare, Romania, Dumitru was the second born in a family of five siblings. He had a loving and happy childhood but not an easy one, being raised after the end of WWII.

He graduated in 1977 the Zootechnical and Veterinarian Medical University. During this time Mitica met Eva, a long time partner in marriage of 44 years. God blesses them with two children, Anamaria in 1977 and Jordan in 1979. He spent the next two decades working tirelessly raising a family and offering an education to his children.

An idealist and incorrigible optimist, in 1999, at the age of 51 he decided to emigrate to California to offer his children an even more prosperous life and free of constraints. During the years he befriended many people with whom he spent many memorable events. He supported and got to see his children Anamaria, Sergiu, Jordan and Dana accomplished and starting their own families and he also had the joy of spending many loving years with his grandsons, Darius (12) and Luca (8).

Nine years ago he was diagnosed with lung cancer, a disease that did not make him loose faith in God, did not take his smile from his lips, a disease that defeated his body but not his gentle soul. He was surrounded by the loving care of his wife, children, grandsons, and many more relatives and friends who were with him until the last moment. He passed away at his residence on January 25th 2020. He will be dearly missed by all. We, the surviving members of the family, also want to extend our gratitude to all the medical staff at KP and UC Davis in Sacramento, who through the last 9 years did everything that was available in modern medicine to fight the disease and make him as comfortable as possible. May he Rest In Peace!