Eleanor Oracion Santos

Eleanor Oracion Santos, amazing cook, funny lady, beautiful soul throughout, nature and animal lover, and very loving provider and family woman died very peacefully on Friday, December 19, 2025 at 7:30pm surrounded by her most beloved children.

Our Mama passed away only five months and three days from our Papa’s passing Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 10:30am, then surrounded by his most beloved wife Eleanor and children. Our Mama and Papa are still married, but now in Heaven as they didn’t have a gap year of marriage at all. They will be celebrating their 64th Heavenly Wedding Anniversary on August 11, 2026 which their dutiful and loyal children intend to celebrate and honor every year forward. They both truly could not stand being apart from each other in life and now in death- a story so powerful and romantic that they even eloped in a distant, undisclosed Philippine province in 1962 with only a few select friends knowing they were getting married. They are going to be together no matter what!

If our Papa was a foodie, our Mama was the amazing cook that caused this. She would cook delicious meals daily for her family before she went to work and even during her retirement. You may have had her delicious dishes ranging from callos to lasagna, from adobo to spaghetti- dishes mostly requested by relatives for her to cook and bring at family gatherings. She loved to cook as a way of expressing and showing her love for her family during our gatherings. She would even make extra trays of food to bring to those who could not attend to be dutifully driven to them by our Papa at their doorstep especially during and after the Pandemic. MAMA’S LOVE was unconditional.

Our Mama was also a very humble person. You would most certainly hear, “Who cooked this spaghetti?!,” at a family gathering exclaiming with delight, “Ang sarap! (It is delicious!).” You would just hear someone respond, “Si Tita Nora (It is Aunt Nora)” as our Mama would politely say, “Salamat! (Thank you!)” in the background somewhere. She doesn’t announce what she is bringing but it is usually one of her greatest hits based on the type of cuisine served at any party. Our Mama also rarely followed recipes and just cooked by taste in a way making her a genius in the kitchen! She truly finds delight seeing people’s stomachs full and most of all, together and happy as an intact family. Our Mama also made with love all our childhood Luneta Park picnic food and snacks as opposed to just buying to-go food items for convenience- a very fond and loving memory of her care and dedication to her family as far back as we all can remember.

As Chief Registered Nurse of Santos Medical Clinic and General Hospital, our family hospital in Manila, she graduated from Nursing School as the Pioneering Class of 1962 from University of the East in Quezon City, Philippines, amongst dearest classmates whom all have remained in contact with her and our Papa 65 years later and still going. If you are born in Santos Hospital between 1962 and 1988, the second face you will see right as you are born after Dr. Aurora Bretaña or Ate Oreng the mid-wife, would be the face of our beautiful Mama whom also comforted and cleaned you as well as ceased your crying before finally handing you to your own mother with open arms. True story: you met our Mama first before you met your own mom.

When we migrated to America in 1988, she had to take the California State Nursing Board Exams and relearn what she had learned now in English, a good 30 years since she was in nursing school taking such tests in Tagalog. It took several tries but she persevered and succeeded as she knows her passing this very important exam will bring much prosperity and pride to her family in America. She continued working in America as an RN for the Veterans Administration Hospitals, having stints at VAs Menlo Park and Palo Alto California until her VA retirement when she was diagnosed with her first bout of breast cancer in 2002. She is indeed a very remarkable woman.

She would drive herself to and from work, very tired from cooking us daily meals before working the graveyard shift, at first, where she would get lost with driving directions if rerouted or even suffering a few car accidents when she sometimes fell asleep behind the wheel while driving. God really works in mysterious ways as He allowed our Mama to live a long, dignified life as opposed to being a disfigured car accident survivor. “God is indeed really good to good people,” our Mama always says which she instilled in all of us so her children do unto others as they would like others do unto them- The Golden Rule!

Having been born during the Second World War like our Papa, our Mama taught us the value in things accumulated through hard, honest work. Our Mama would wrap all our schoolbooks in clear plastic thick cellophane covers as we all would use our schoolbooks as food trays while eating our lunches in UST Elementary and High School- all her five children would do is just wipe the spilled ketchup clean from the book cover and our books are as good as new. Our Mama also was very practical and prepared that when we migrated to America, she wrapped in newspaper her entire collection of nice China dishes, kitchen utensils, pots and pans from 1962- ready to be used upon our plane landing to cook with love for her family once more. She was even poked fun by our American relatives upon arrival that all her kitchen equipment could have been bought at Target for which she replied, “All I need is fire and you will ALL be full and have a smile on your faces in 20 minutes!” Fun fact: her entire collection of dishes, pots, glasses, and silver are still in our Las Vegas kitchen 65 years later.

Our Mama also loved nature and animals. Our Mama was the one who encouraged us to name our Tugatog Farm chickens as a way for us to connect with them better through her children’s nurturing and love of all God’s creatures. She would cry with us also when our beloved chickens would “accidentally” be served for dinner by our Tugatog Farm Chefs. Our Mama also loved all our pets and became very close to our Papa’s stray cat Lucius who sat with her on the couch while she watched television after Papa’s passing. You would often see both Lucius and our Mama taking naps together from our Blink camera which we installed in our living room after Papa died with Mama’s permission. Our Mama and Papa’s romantic past times are going to the Japanese Friendship Garden together to look fondly at the koi pond, any parks with ducks on a lake or pond, zoos, and even spending quality time watching nature shows together on TV were their bonding go-tos. Her favorite is anything with Sir David Attenborough whom she endearingly referred to as lolo or grandfather.

While Mama loved faunas, our Mama also loved floras. She would be seen looking out as a car passenger just admiring the foliage as we drive by. She loves trees and how they change shapes and colors depending on the season. It was during our planned Thanksgiving 2025 Sacramento trip that we all realized her time to join our Papa was near. We nicknamed her Baby as she is like a baby while our Papa was nicknamed, Toddler. She would typically just sleep in cars like a baby but not during the entire Sacramento trip! We encouraged her to nap while she insisted she is not tired, looking at the trees and enjoying her precious time left with her beloved children. She even had three platefuls of crab at East Bay Buffet when she knew she couldn’t have that much sodium. This proved to be the last time she would have a full and scrumptiously satisfying meal before being intubated.

Mama suffered a bad bout of shortness of breath the Sunday night upon returning from Sacramento Thanksgiving in Las Vegas. A very fateful and sad fact as we also planned a Moreno Valley trip with hotel and car rental booked already for Christmas. Mama truly wanted to see her very loved ones one last time. Thank you, Tita Nene for speaking to Mama almost daily and for providing her a lot of comfort during her final moments via your FaceTime call to her and us. Mama had about 3 water bottles of liquid in her lungs it turned out and her COPD did not help make her breathing any easier according to doctors. Upon analyzing her lung liquid, we were told by the Emergency room doctors that the liquid in her lungs already had Stage 4 lung cancer, unbeknownst to us.

We later discovered, which the nurses and ICU doctors confirmed, that she already knew she was terminal but did not share with us so she can just enjoy the last few months of her life, not in pain and not undergoing Stage 4 chemotherapy and radiation along with her concurrent Stage 4 kidney disease and congestive heart failure. She also told us she didn’t want to lose her hair again like she did fighting and beating breast cancer 25 years prior. She truly wanted to see our Papa in Heaven as pretty and as dignified as she is now and forever, not bloated and purple, stuck in a breathing tube and hair all over the place or gone. A few of us brushed her hair during her last few weeks so she doesn’t come back and haunt us. Our Mama was a very proud woman that she wanted her make up bag to be packed for the hospital so she can put her make up on while undergoing physical therapy in the mornings during her early hospital confinement. Our Mama was indeed a beautiful woman inside and out.

Due to her being driven by our Papa to her Cancer oncologist doctors regularly prior to Papa’s death, we also discovered that our Papa already also knew she was terminal which is why our Papa sort of gave up on life rather quickly as he knew that he would see Mama again just 5 months later in Heaven. We even asked our Mama what she missed about Papa the most after he passed to which she replied, “our trips to the doctor’s office for our appointments as we truly bonded,” naks (aww). While our Mama kept her diagnosis from us, it brings us much joy that her quality of life remained pristine until her death. They even had a very deep understanding with the custody of each other’s false teeth. My mom wanted to have my dad’s false teeth inurned with him and we told her it would be a Clark County health violation. In her last moments, she jokingly wrote, “my false teeth, just raffle it.” She truly wanted to see our Papa again with a full set of teeth with Mama also having a full set of teeth when she reunites with him in Heaven.

Our Mama is funny without knowing it. Due to her poor upbringing, she is sensibly frugal but not cheap. She would be dismayed at seeing cloth napkins at nice restaurants opting for compostable paper napkins as she would say, “It is a waste of water to wash these, and these are so nice to just wipe our mouths with.” While some places do not have paper napkins, she would take the cloth napkin and make a bib out of it making way to a funny anecdote of her having dined and met friends after lunch where our Papa was scolded by our Mama on how he didn’t tell her she had been wearing a bib meeting friends all day to which my dad replied, “Malay ko! Kala ko style mo yan (I thought it was PART of your style!)” after getting home that night. It really did look like a Pussycat Bow Blouse ensemble! Our Mama also never answered her flip cellphone as she was embarrassed that it is 2025 and she and Papa are the only ones on earth with flip phones still when she picked it up.

Had she told us she had Stage 4 lung cancer, we would have forced her to undergo a very aggressive Stage 4 chemotherapy and radiation and she would not have experienced all of the above as well as the white sands of Boracay, the rich and historic beauty of Cebu, and the tropical warm climate of the Philippines which she truly loved!!! It was her first time going to these places as she was literally married to Santos Hospital 24/7 and did not have time to travel during her tenure there, even locally. While she never made it back to Lucena City, her childhood home on our recent trip in March, we will be delivering part of her ashes to her remaining relatives in Lucena City eventually.

Our Mama was a great mother, wife, and grandmother as well sister and aunt/grand aunt to our beloved, even extended families. Tita Nora as she was known by all was a beautiful soul and being a nurse was her duty and calling to take care of everyone. We still remember all the rubbing alcohol bath rubdowns as children when we had a fever. The diets of SkyFlakes and Coca Cola when our stomachs were upset. She was also the neighborhood medical expert and go to when folks in our Manila neighborhood could not afford treatment in Santos Hospital. More profound factoids: if you were sick or your hand was blown up while lighting New Year’s Eve firecrackers or were circumcised in Santos Hospital between 1962 and 1988, it was also our Mama who wiped away both your blood and tears, and comforted you back to health.

On the last day of her life, her demeanor completely changed from a sleeping beauty into a happy, content, and vigorous and funny woman at 3pm upon hearing her beloved children’s voices return to the ICU room after grabbing lunch. She jumped for joy and hand-gestured wanting to write to specifically thank Ate Riza and Kuya Ariel in writing for taking such good care of her and our Papa in their Las Vegas home which they all shared. Her children who reside in a different State would call her and our Papa daily discussing the Golden State Warriors games, what happened to Tanggol the night prior, and asking about their day ahead among other topics. She also wrote for us to just stay with her and order food delivery when she overheard us wishing to go to Ellis Island BBQ for our dinner on December 19, the night she died. She stopped us from leaving ICU: you will see her last energetic and profound scribbles between 3pm and 7:30pm the day of her death under the Photos Section here with English translations as well as in person during her funeral on January 23, 2026 framed and posted all over the place.

Our Mama will be greatly missed. But it is not a goodbye, it is ‘til we meet her and our Papa again.

We ask you to join us in person or via Livestream as we celebrate our Mama’s loving, amazing, admirable, remarkable, well-lived and dignified life.

A memorial service will be held on January 23, 2026, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm at Palm Mortuary - Eastern, located at 7600 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89123.

Following the memorial service, a committal service will take place from 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm at the same location.

A reception will be held afterward from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm at Palm Mortuary - Eastern.

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/las-vegas-nv/aurelio-santos-12456649