Jose Espinoza

On behalf of our family and I, we would like to thank you all for being here today. I’m humbled as I look around and see you all here. We have received so much love and support from you all. It has been comforting during this difficult time. I know that my grandpa is looking down right now in such joy, seeing just how loved he was, how loved he is.

I will always remember pulling up to his house and seeing him sitting outside the gate in his kaki dickies and baseball cap sitting on the ledge of the fence smoking a cigarette, waving at us with his left hand, telling us there is food inside. He was incredibly generous, always giving. All through our childhood and even as we got older when the ice cream truck would pass he would reach into his back pocket to get his wallet to give us money to buy ice cream, yelling at us from the porch to get him an ice cream too. Oh, how he loved sweets, his strawberry ice cream Sundays from Sonic. I will forever miss his love for French fries, potato chips, and gum.

He was such a people person; he could talk for hours to anyone, and I mean anyone. My grandma would send us to the grocery store for milk and eggs and we would come back 4 hours later because he was talking to everyone. When I started my nursing journey and when he would see nurses at the hospital he would ask if they knew me, always talking about me to them, even though they didn’t know who I was. He was the sweetest thing; I knew he was proud of me. During one of my rotations at the hospital, he was admitted on my floor and the nurses loved him, talking about how cute and funny he was, it warms my heart. I remember sitting at the nurses' station and seeing his call light constantly go off, seeing the nurses go in and hearing his laugh and the laugh of the nurses coming from his room. He just loved talking; he loved the attention. He was loved by many. It didn’t matter how long you knew him for, once he talked to you, you instantly loved him.

I will forever cherish all the little things he did for me, all the talks we had, the stories he told me, the advice he's given me. He would always talk to me about my childhood about how he would walk down the streets of Chaparral with me when I was only 3 feet tall. He told me that story a million times, but I would do anything to hear it once more. I’ll miss your voice, your laugh, your jokes, your singing, your dancing, I’ll miss all of you.

God, I pray to you to receive my grandpa with open arms. Give us all the strength to deal with this great loss. Give my grandma the strength to heal.

A mi querido papi pepe que le pudeo decir, hasta en sus ultimos dias nunca se dio por vencido. Usted un hombre muy fuerte y luchador, y eso es algo que siempre me llevare conmigo. Usted me enseno que no hay que tenerle miedo a la vida, temenos que luchar hasta el ultimo momento. Siempre usted muy orgulloso de nostoros en todas las metas que hemos logrado. Se que estas sonriendo y feliz sabiendo que te fuiste tranquillo sabiendo que dejas una famila fuerte y unida. Sabias que estariamos bien porque nos temenos el uno al otro. Y no se preocupe a qui le quidamos a su Mona. Lo vamos a extranar. Cuida de nostotros mi angelito, te amamos.