Maria Elodia Cervantes Ventura

Maria Elodia Ventura, age 79, died on June 15th, 2017, but she is still with us. Her story carries on through the wind, through our lives, and through us. Maria was always a shining star of kindness and powerful with love, and she will never be forgotten in our hearts.

Maria was born on February 12th, 1938 to a Spanish family in Mexico. Growing up, Maria had nine siblings, some died at a young age,but most lived to see old age. At a young age, she fell in love with birds, she also liked dogs, and loved to watch them. She grew up Catholic, going to Catholic schools, and adored the beautiful churches in Mexico.

On May 14th, 1965, a new stage of her life dawned on the horizon. Enrique J. Ventura married Maria on May 14th, and more surprises were to come from this marriage. At age twenty-eight, one year later, she moved to California for the ‘American Dream’. Also in 1966, she gave birth to her firstborn child, Maribel Ventura, later being Maribel Frey. Also,a few later, she also had two sons, Marcos Ventura and Fabio Ventura.The store she told the most stories about was her work at JC Penny's in the jewelry department. She worked extra hard to learn the English language for the benefit of everyone around her and herself.

After living in California for twenty-nine years, Enquire and Maria Ventura moved in with one of their children, Maribel. Maribel Frey, previously Maribel Ventura,took in her parents and Maria lived in San Antonio and around the SA area for twenty years. In her twenty years here, she took care of all four of Maribel’s kids: Alexandria, Zachary, Nicolas, and Cloe Frey. Her grandkids deemed her the name of “Lita,” which is short for the Spanish word for grandmother, and enjoyed her company and loving support. She loved them all with all her heart, and died wanting to see Zachary because he was coming home from Nuclear Engineering school for the Navy. Though she never got to see Zach come home, she is in his heart and everyone’s hearts that she met.

One day, Lita decided to listen to some songs with Cloe, the youngest of the four, and found a message she liked in a song. Everyday, from 2015 to 2017, she hummed the beat when Cloe was around, and the song never died. “Don’t You Worry Child” was the hit of 2013, blowing minds away, and winning Lita’s heart for its lyrics. She only recalled one line from the song most of the time, “Don’t you worry, don’t you worry child, see heaven’s got a plan for you, don’t you worry now.” That message stayed true all those years, and it still holds up today. No matter what happened, no matter if death comes to your door, or if you are feeling down, just don’t you worry, because heaven has a plan for you.

I would like to thank Lita for raising me to be the person I am today, without her, I would be less charismatic and sensible. I know she cares for us all in heaven, no matter if we don’t notice, and I know she won’t let us worry because heaven will always have a plan for us. So, don’t you worry now, Maria, we all love you.

Written with love from Cloe, her granddaughter.