Delfina Valdez Lozano

Delfina Valdez Lozano, a devoted and loving mother of nine children and a passionate and inspiring soul to all who knew her, died peacefully on Dec. 30. She was 83. Like many women of her generation, she never went to college, never learned to drive a car and never knew a life without work. Her single greatest talent was for living. Her life was her art -- and she celebrated it every day. She loved to laugh, she loved to talk and she loved to cook because she loved people. "The skillet makes the home," she often said. And so her house was always filled with friends and family, often united in some raucous birthday or holiday celebration. "A mother's greatest joy," she used to say, "is to hear her children laugh."She was not deeply religious but she believed how you lived your life, how you treated others, mattered. There was a strict moral code: "Right is right, and wrong is wrong." On love: "Don't tell me, show me." On family: "Blood is thicker than water." She worked hard all of her life but her only ambition was for her children. Like her father, she was an avid reader of newspapers and placed a high value on education. The day before she suffered a debilitating stroke, she attended her grandson's middle-school graduation ceremony, dressed proudly in red, white and blue. "Do something with your life," she would say. "Leave something of yourself behind in this world." She was a courageous woman who faced life's most difficult moments with amazing grace. She was as strong as she was self-less, as passionate as she was compassionate. When her ex-husband had heart surgery, she took him in and cared for him while he recovered. She was not afraid to give. Money, food, shelter, whatever was hers was yours. Whether the person in need was a member of her own family, a neighbor, or a stranger, it didn't matter. She honored you with her kindness and generosity. It was no small irony that a woman who sacrificed all of her life for others suffered from an enlarged heart. For her, it was simple: love was action. It was about the contributions we make to each others' lives. Delfina was born in Tynan, Texas, on Jan. 12, 1932 to Domingo and Ascencion Valdez, the second of six children. She grew up during the Depression and World War II, when sacrifice and hard work were the norm for most Americans. Her family – having felt the sting of racism in their small South Texas town -- eventually moved to Corpus Christi, where Delfina graduated from the local high school. While working as a clerk at a neighborhood dry cleaners, she met her future husband, Benito Huerta Lozano. The couple were married in 1951. They had five children - three girls and two boys - before moving in 1965 to Bellaire, a Houston suburb known for its low-crime and good schools. This is where they would begin anew.

Over the next decade, they would have four more children -- twin boys and two girls. Such a large family sometimes made for a hard life. Sometimes it meant working seven days a week, as a cashier in a grocery store, managing a restaurant or taking care of other people's kids. But Delfina never complained.

She was building a foundation -- the kind only mothers can build, the kind that can withstand life's fiercest storms. In so doing she transformed a house into a home, not only for her own children but for dozens of others she helped raise through the child-care business she operated out of that same home for more than 25 years. As any parent knows, raising children is the hardest job there is. But it was the job she loved the most. The one that brought her endless joy.

Over the years, she received countless birthday presents and graduation and wedding invitations from those she once fed and whose diapers she changed. To her friends and neighbors, she was Fina. But to the many more she comforted, encouraged and helped take their first steps in this world, she was mom. Lozano is survived by son Benito Huerta and daughter-in-law Janet Chaffee; daughter Susana Monica and granddaughter Nickelle Monica; daughter Yolanda Lozano, partner Eddie Powell and his son Daniel, and granddaughter Samantha Powell; daughter Leticia Lozano and son-in-law Jeff Roberts; son Carlos Valdez Lozano; son David Jonathan Lozano, partner Kevin Kreinbring; son James Daniel Lozano, daughter-in-law Vicky Lozano, grandsons Jonathan and Andrew, and granddaughters Andreana and Juliana; daughter Linda Christine Steptoe, son-in-law Derrick Steptoe and granddaughter Brittnay Eckwood; daughter Lisa Lozano Reyna, son-in-law Edward Reyna, granddaughter Christine and grandson David. She is also survived by sisters Alice Valdez Cuevas, Lily Valdez and Lole Valdez Castillo; and brother Domingo Valdez and sister-in-law Anita Valdez.

Visitation will be held 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Thursday, January 7, 2015 at Earthman Resthaven Funeral Home, with a Rosary to be recited at 7:00 p.m. The Celebration of Life Funeral Service will be 10:00 a.m., Friday, January 8, 2015 in the Chapel of Earthman Resthaven. Interment will follow at Earthman Resthaven Cemetery.