Gloria S. Camanse

On October 16, 1941, Gloria Santos was born at Wahiawa General Hospital, Wahiawa, Hawaii in Cental O'ahu. She and her family lived in Whitmore Village on the Dole pineapple plantation where her parents, George and Rebecca worked in the fields and raised their five children, Henry, George, Lorraine, Gloria, and their baby boy Sonny. Gloria attended Helemano Elementary School and later Leilehua High. She was a beautiful happy girl in a loving, close family. She played volleyball, learned to play the piano and loved to talk about boys with her best friend Maring. The boys were crazy over her but she would meet a soldier from Guam -- Julian F. Cruz Sr., who was stationed at Schofield Barracks at the time. She married Mr. Cruz and they had six children. Her children were Angela, Carmela, Vanessa, Julian, Ralph, and Brandon. They traveled the United States to various Army Stations and when they were stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, her and her children ended up being cast as extras to play in the John Wayne movie, The Green Beret, where Gloria and her sons Jr. and Ralph ended up in the actual film. She got to meet John Wayne, Jim Hutton, Aldo Ray, and David Jensen. Exciting stuff but she always missed home and mom and the rest of her family so whenever her husband did an overseas tour, she would take her children back home to her beloved family and island. Whenever they returned home, her family embraced her and the children with love, family gatherings, and memory making events like trips with their Fernandez cousins to Haleiwa Beach and Waimea Bay. Once again, back in the mainland in 1970, Gloria went to cosmetology school in Monterey, California and became a hairstylist. This time she wasn't as homesick for family because there was a little piece of Hawaii in Monterey. Also living in Monterey were her Uncle Ben, his wife Julia and their children as well as the La'a family who lived on the next street back in Whitmore Village. When the family moved to San Diego in 1975, she was Montgomery High's School's most popular hairstylist because she could cut a mean Farrah Fawcett hairdo! She also won awards in styling competitions at numerous hairstyling conventions. A former tomboy growing up, Gloria loved sports and became an avid Charger fan. Her children can remember her through the years jumping up and down cheering for the Chargers at the family home in Otay Mesa. After her divorce in the late 1980's Gloria moved back home to O'ahu along with her youngest son Brandon who was still in high school. She was active in the local gym where she took aerobics classes and hula lessons and went to family and friends' homes to do her favorite thing, kanakapila. They played music, sang, ate, and laughed and Gloria basked and thrived in all the aloha. It was at one of the karaoke get togethers that her friends did some matchmaking and reintroduced Gloria to a man who had a crush on her in high school but whom she turned down with an adamant "NO" when he was outside her bedroom window and asked her "GET CHANCE?". This man was Ronald Camanse and they fell hard for each other this time around. They were rarely seen without one another except for his having to go to work for the attorney general as a bodyguard for the governors and lieutenant governors of Hawaii. He called her every chance he got during the day and it was amazing to see how this little woman could knock a big Hawaiian-Filipino, martial arts master to his knees with one look. Their favorite things to do were sing karaoke as both had beautiful voices, and fish and camp with his brother Anthony and his wife Jane at places like Police Beach, a private beach for law enforcement and their families. When Gloria's kids and grandkids would visit from the mainland, Ronald and Gloria immersed them in the culture of Hawaii and Ronald did what Grandpas love to do, tell stories of the old days of Hawaii... Gloria worked as a Special Ed Teacher's Assistant at a local school district, she had Ronald, the love of her life, and was surrounded with family as well as childhood friends. Ronald's children Boy, Darlene, Laverne, and Tammy loved her like she was their own mom and she loved them too. Yet she still had an emptiness in her heart from missing her children on the mainland. Gloria also started to get sick with heart disease and was diagnosed with diabetes. Both were diseases that her mother, aunts and uncles were suffering from or passed away with. She decided it was time to go back to the mainland to be with her children. Ronald supported her in spite of the fact that he was born and raised and had never moved away from the island, family, and friends that he loved. They moved to San Diego in the early 2000's. Her life was then complete and the family kept growing with 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. They would have lots of gatherings at the park or at family homes playing poker or music and Hawaiian kine food. She loved to hear the banter of her sons in law Lee and Edsel during their rousing poker games. There was always youngest son Brandon playing his ukelele, and children running around playing. Laughter and good times were abundant. Her son Ralph bought Ronald what Gloria always denied him -- a motorcycle! Ronald and Ralph would do short rides as mom quietly worried at home and they'd return from their rides with their hair sticking up and the biggest of grins. When her eldest son Jr. passed away, it was devastating, and two years later, Ronald also passed. Gloria also lost her sister Lorraine and younger brother Sonny in 2010 leaving herself and brother George from Seattle as the last of the 5 siblings. In spite of her losses and her developing illnesses, Gloria remained the glue that held the family together. In 2010 while on dialysis three times a week, she was diagnosed with breast cancer which she bravely and quietly fought. She went through 4 chemo treatments, a mastectomy, and 3 post mastectomy chemo treatments when it all finally took it's toll and she was admitted to the hospital on New Year's Eve. The night before she passed away, with firm conviction and a strong voice she said the words "I love my kids!" -- to her eldest daughter. That same night, she also told the nurse that she saw her husband and that he was waiting for her. She passed away in her sleep on January 6, 2011 and surrounding her bed were her children and grandchildren. She died the way she wanted to die, with peace, dignity, without pain, with her loving husband waiting for her on the other side, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

Rest in peace Gloria, we love and miss you.