Maria Luisa Gumucio Falquez, age 85, passed away at home on November 7, 2019, after nine months of battling complications from a stroke. Maria Luisa, or Malusa, as her family called her, was born June 13, 1934 in Cochabamba, Bolivia to Jose Luis Gumucio and Maria Daria Cardenas. Her father sent her and her brothers to colleges in other countries to get away from the volatile political situation in their country. Maria went to Dental School in Sao Paulo, Brazil. However, after one year, she was asked to come home to help care for her mother who was in poor health. Four years later, in 1957, her father sent her to The United States to get her away from her boyfriend who was a lawyer. Her father didn’t like lawyers.
Maria arrived in Kansas City, Kansas, where several of her brothers were already living and going to school. She got her first job at Bethany Hospital, as an Operating Room Technician. This was the same hospital where her brother, Mario, was doing his Internal Medicine Residency. She went from wanting to faint at the sight of blood, to truly loving the challenge of assisting in a variety of procedures. During a tornado alarm, she took shelter in the basement of her apartment and met a handsome young man from Baranquilla, Colombia, named Fernando Jose Falquez. They were married on February 7, 1959. While her husband was finishing his studies in Electrical Engineering at University of Kansas, they welcomed a daughter, Myriam (Mimi) Teresa and two year later, their second daughter, Ana Maria was born. After graduation, Fernando joined the Air Force as a commissioned officer and they moved to Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York. He had hoped to be a fighter pilot, but his hay fever kept him grounded. Many of his fellow officers were fighting in Viet Nam. Many were killed or missing in action. After four years, he had had enough of the military and he accepted a job offer from Honeywell in Clearwater, Florida as an electrical engineer. Soon after they arrived in Clearwater, their son, Fernando (Andy) Jr. was born. He was a beautiful baby and Mimi and Ana were thrilled to have a living doll to play with! Doctors soon realized that Andy was born completely blind in one eye and with very limited vision in the other eye. By the time he was 2 or 3 years old, it became apparent the he was also severely developmentally delayed. He was later classified as severely autistic. Unfortunately, soon after Andy was born, Maria and Fernando were divorced. She went back to work as an Operating Room Technician at Suncoast Hospital in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. She made many friends there and was highly regarded by all the doctors who she worked with. She enjoyed sharing the day’s events with her girls at the dinner table. She loved the emergency surgeries. Her favorite were the emergency C-sections. Her girls remember her joyfully exclaiming, “We had a baby girl today!!”
Maria loved Florida. She loved to garden. Everyone knew she had a green thumb. She was most proud of her American Beauty roses at her front door and her fuscia azalea bushes along the front of her house. She made many friends and welcomed all who came to her door.
One day, two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints knocked on her door and she let them in. She loved what they had to say and soon, she and her two daughters were baptized into the church. Maria loved serving in the church as a primary teacher and enjoyed singing in the choir. She had a beautiful voice and was thrilled to be asked to sing with the choir at the dedication of the Washington, DC temple. This was a spiritual highlight in her life. She often said that there were angels singing with them that day.
The church was a huge part of Maria’s life. She relied on her faith to get her through many trials and challenges. On November 13, 1977, while she was at work in the OR, Maria began to have a horrible headache. She was 43 years old. Luckily, the doctors she worked with had her lie down while they ran some tests. A spinal tap revealed that she was hemorrhaging. They quickly began to do more tests to find out where the bleeding was coming from. They soon realized that she was having a massive cerebral hemorrhage. When the family arrived at the hospital in the evening, the prognosis was grim. She had a 50/50 chance of surviving the night and a 50/50 chance of surviving each subsequent day for the next week. Her daughters were distraught. Mimi was 17, Ana was 15 and Andy was 9. Many prayers were answered and after 1 month in Neurological Intensive Care, Maria finally came home – just in time for Christmas!
Maria suffered many other health challenges over the years. She was diagnosed with large B-cell lymphoma in 1998. She was 64 years old. After 5 months of intensive chemotherapy, she was bald, but cancer-free. Her daughters celebrated by throwing her a surprise 65th birthday party at Ana’s home in Sanford, FL. All of Maria’s living brothers attended, including Uncle John and his wife, Hilda, along with their son, Nelson and Nelson’s wife Carola and their daughter Selina; Uncle Roger, Uncle Rey, Uncle Mario and his wife, Maria Luisa (Lucha), Aunt Irene and her daughters, Sonia and Regina. Ana’s children, Easton and Erin joined in the celebration. Dear friends from Clearwater, Rose Mary Dozier and Joyce Rebeck also attended. There was singing, dancing, story-telling and lots of food. A wonderful time was had by all.
In August 2005, Maria was attending the Open House of the Newport Beach Temple with Mimi and Mimi’s husband, Randy, when she began talking in jibberish. It was impossible to make out what she was saying. They soon realized that she might be having a mini stroke and took her to the Emergency Room. After a few hours, she began to get better. She was put on blood thinners and sent home and appeared to be fine.
In February, 2019, Maria suffered a massive stroke that resulted in her not being able to speak, swallow or use her right hand or leg. While she was recuperating, she began to have seizures that occurred every 15 minutes and lasted for 1 minute each. This went on for 24 hours. She was taken to the ER and given meds which helped. She returned to the skilled nursing facility, where she stayed for a total of 4 months. On June 6th, she came home and was cared for in Mimi and Randy’s home by Ana. She was first on palliative care, but was soon moved to hospice. Never was a mother cared for more tenderly by her daughter, than Maria. She enjoyed many good days watching movies, going out into the garden and going for walks in her wheel chair. She had some challenging days as well. She was a strong and resilient lady. She finally became so weak that her daughters realized it was time to let her go. On November 7, 2019 at 5:30 pm, Maria finally let go and crossed the veil into the loving embrace of our Father in Heaven. She was surely greeted by her precious son, Andy, who preceded her in death by 7 ½ months. She left behind a legacy of love, faith and devotion to her family that will not be forgotten.
Maria is survived by her two daughters, Myriam Dedrick (Randy) and Ana Ray; six grandchildren, Lane Dedrick (Mirela), Marc Dedrick (Grisel). Krista Pulsifer (Gage), Thomas Dedrick (Courtney), Erin Craft (Will), and Easton, and five great-grandchildren, Hailey Dedrick, Jace Dedrick, Lucas Dedrick, Avery Craft, and Brooklyn Dedrick, loving brothers and sisters-in-law, Roger Gumucio (Jennifer) (Peggy), Rey Gumucio (Billie), Irene Gumucio and Hilda Gumucio, and many nieces, nephews and extended family and friends, all of whom she loves dearly.
Thank you all for all the love you have shown my sweet mom throughout her life. You were the light and joy of her life.
Funeral services will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 441 South Fairmont Blvd, Anaheim, CA 92808, on Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 11 am. Viewing and visitation at 10 am.
There will be second service in Florida at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park, 2853 Sunset Point Rd, Clearwater, FL 33759, on December 7, 2019 at 10 am. This is the location she chose more than 40 years ago to be her final resting place.
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