Luz M. Bustamante

Luz M. Bustamante passed away peacefully on December 25, 2019 with her family by her side. She was 92 years young. She was born in 1927 in Guadalupe Victoria, Durango Mexico. She was preceded in death by her husband Salvador G. Bustamante. She is survived by her son Fernando (Aurora/Nettie) Islas and daughters, Nora (Jessie) Perez, Lydia AKA Lily (Rick) Garoutte, Ana M. (Albert) Solarez and Lucy Bustamante (Gilbert) Zapien. Son’s preceded in death Daniel (Gail) Martinez and Salvador (Delores/Connie) Bustamante Jr. 18 grandchildren, 46 great grandchildren, and 5 great great grandchildren.

Luz was the matriarch of her family of 10 siblings. Being the eldest, she helped raise her siblings and began working at a tender age of 10 yrs old. She came to America 58 years ago and continued to raise her children. Working very hard and saved enough money to buy our childhood home in Sonora Town in Gilbert AZ. A parishionor of St. Anne Roman Catholic Church for 50 yrs and volunteered as a Guadalupana. Driving the volunteers who were unable to drive to mass. Praying the Rosary (her favorite prayer) weekly with the Guadalupana’s. She was a devote Catholic and instilled this with her children as her mother had instilled it in her. She would encourage us always to pray and attend mass and I am sure this would have been her final wish to know that our family would continue to practice our Catholic faith.

Her praying her favorite daily and evening prayers and doing the sign of the cross before going to bed until the end when she was able to. Receiving the last sacrament the sacred “ointment for the sick” was the beginning of her passage to live the next few days in peace.

Raising her children and grandchildren was her life. We all loved her cooking and learned from her. Our favorites, home made refried beans, rice, tortillas, salsa, menudo, pork with red chili and nopales, verdolagas, just to name a few. Luz became US Citizen in December of 1999. Luz loved to garden and had a green thumb. She loved to play with her great great grandchildren when they came to visit. She showed us so much love and affection, lessons in life we will carry and pass to our families. The greatest lesson displayed was to learn how to forgive. As she grew up, it was difficult in showing affection and saying “I love you”. As a teenager, I would say “I love you mom”, she didn’t say it in return. Over time, she got used to hearing us say “I love you mom”, she in return would say “Me too”. This became her signature saying and we were all blessed to hear her say this to us all. "We love you mom” and she is saying from heaven “Me too!"