Bertha Alicia Vasi

Before we start on my mother’s eulogy I would like to take a moment to thank everybody for attending last night's viewing and the wonderful comments received. In particular, my brother Charles' comments about the help we received from Theresa during my mother's last few months which allowed her to stay at home until the very end.

Eulogy:

My mother was born in Gomez Palacio in the state of Durango Mexico on October 24, 1929. Her parents were Jose Dolores Jaime and Dolores Leclerc.  She had one sister named Mina and she was also part of an extended family, which included 5 other siblings – Teresa, Alfonso, Mario, Felipe, and Leticia.  She spent her young life in Mexico working as a seamstress until the age of 22.  By the time she was in her 20’s, her extended family was much younger than her and her mother was very occupied with them so she realized she needed to move on with her life.  She was encouraged to join a childhood friend to go to the border town of Juarez, Mexico.  It was not an easy decision for her leaving her mother and family, but it would later prove to be a very important one.  In Juarez, she took a job as a waitress to help earn a living while she lived with a friend.  It was during this time that she met an engineer (my father Carmen) who was working in White Sands, New Mexico at the time and would come with his buddies across the border to enjoy the Mexican food and dancing.

After a year of dating they were married in 1954 and settled in El Paso, Texas.  There she was a homemaker while my father worked in the defense industry which was subject to many changes of location. The first was in 1955 they moved to Santa Monica, CA and had their first son, Charles. Two years later, they moved back to Alamogordo, New Mexico where their second son (me) was born in 1958.  The following year, their 3rd son Michael was born in El Paso, Texas. Shortly after they moved back to California where in 1963, their last son (Robert) was born in Redondo Beach, CA.  There live settled in Redondo through the remainder of the sixties but in 1971, my father lost his job as part of a major government shut down.  To make ends meet, my mother then got a job for the 2nd time as a seamstress making wet suits for “Dive & Surf”.  She stayed in the job for a few years and enjoyed the friendships that she developed there.  Her sons loved it too as we took advantage of the freebies that came with her job which included scuba gear and certifications.  After my father was rehired, my mom eventually stopped working to take care of the 4 boys.  In 1976, my father took a 2 year transfer to Los Cruces, New Mexico followed by an additional 2 years transferred to Lancaster, California.  They lived there with Robert and Michael while Tony & I stayed in California.  They returned back to their Redondo Beach house for the last time in 1980, where they settled for the remainder of their lives.

Reflection and comments:

My mother was very passionate about her family her entire life. This included her extended family which even though she had left in Mexico, she never lost contact with them.  She and my father played a crucial role in helping her extended family immigrate to the United States. I remember growing up we often had a full house with family members which at times were challenging to everybody but it also lead to many great summer BBQs and swimming parties in their back yard. My brothers and I learned early that Mexican BBQs are the best, their style of meat cuts taste great and there was never a shortage of beverages for us young guys to enjoy.

More personally my mother like my father was an amazing dancer and the both of them loved trips to Vegas.  In my mother’s case, she really enjoyed the slot machines.  She enjoyed the penny machines and would sometimes win some pretty big jackpots on them.  She may have been an amazing dancer but she was really born to be an amazing shopper.  She was an absolute bargain hunter.  She pursued it with such a passion you would have thought she was a professional and even very late in her life when she could no longer drive, I would take her to the mall where she would be completely tireless.  We would leave the mall when I got tired, not her. Our family was very close when it came to most things except when it came to eating.  My father and the 4 brothers would sit at the table and eat like ravenous dogs, pounding down our food as fast as we could.  But my mom, would often eat her meals standing up in the kitchen and pretty much would eat like a bird and incredibly slow.  There were times when everyone was done at the table and she would just be eating her first bites of tortilla.  She enjoyed tortillas and bread, but her real passion was not food – it was actually coffee.  She would drink coffee day and night, which was one of the nice parts about coming over to see her after we had moved out of the house. There was always fresh coffee in the pot ready to drink. This was a habit she had formed early in life as it is often the case to start drinking coffee at a young age in Mexico. She enjoyed it even to her last days.

My final words on describing my mother are in how caring she was to her sons. She was very protective to us her entire live. She rarely shared any disappointments or difficulties she was having as to not bother or upset us. And the bond and partnering that she provided to my brother Michael was truly a special one. Even in her advanced age she never stopped caring for Michael's well being. Even with me in the final couple of months while she was bed ridden, she always made it easy on me. She never complained about her situation. She remained gentle and strong until the very end. She passed away quietly, in her home of the last 58 years with her family at her side.

We will miss her, but we will all take pleasure knowing she lived a full life and a good one.