Kena Avendano Alonso of Punta Gorda, Florida, passed away on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 at her home alongside the Peace River. She is survived by son Manuel Christopher Alonso and his wife Lauren Robie of Punta Gorda, FL; daughter Brenna Johnson and her husband Mark Johnson of Sherman Oaks, California; siblings Carmen Wilson and Claudio Avendano; and three grandchildren: Keean Johnson, Cade Johnson, and Fay Alonso.
A private family viewing will take place at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at Kays-Ponger & Uselton Funeral Homes located at 2405 Harbor Blvd, Port Charlotte, FL 33952. This will be followed by a funeral mass (open to the public) at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church located at 2500 Easy St., Port Charlotte, FL 33952 at 11:00 AM. There will be a burial, which will be announced at a later date. If you are interested in being notified of the burial, please email [email protected] with your name and email address.
Kena was born on August 2, 1946 in Santiago, Chile to Claudio Hernan Avendano and Rebecca Carmen Avendano. In 1952, Kena moved to the United States with her family, eventually settling in Asheville, NC. In 1966, she would marry the love of her life, Manuel Frederico Alonso (“Chico”), and start their family together. Kena and Chico lived a life full of adventures together, traveling around the world, living abroad in Venezuela and Mexico, and never missing a chance to visit with their children and grandchildren in England, Colorado, New York, Chicago, and Miami. Kena and Chico completed ambitious, unique building projects together, and, most challenging of all, took on her rare progressive disease, Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), as a team. After Chico’s passing in 2015, Kena continued life’s adventure with passion while keeping her husband’s memory alive through stories and past collaborations. In Kena’s last few years with IBM, her granddaughter and caregivers brought light and hope into her life and Kena’s unwavering faith in God gave her strength each day to keep going, to keep working on her relationships, and working toward the dreams that she had in her heart.
As a broker and developer with over forty years of experience in real estate, Kena’s ventures included residential projects, subdividing ocean front land in Mexico, condo development, and her final project, Villa Bella, an innovative mixed-use live/work development, near the heart of Punta Gorda, FL, to be completed as soon as possible per her last wishes.
Kena was a dedicated gardener and lover of plants. She believed in all-natural gardening without chemicals, edible plants, composting and recycling. She and her son co-designed a wheelchair accessible garden at her home on the Peace River. Kena was also a prolific artist, cook, and loved to talk about philosophy. Above all, Kena believed in peace and love. Taken from a letter written to her husband in 1999, she wrote, “Let’s hope that the next century will bring about peace, forgiveness, compassion, understanding and love, amongst all people in the world. Maybe then, we will be able to grow up devoid of fear, truth will flourish, and we will finally all know each other as we really are.”
Kena was an incomparable force of nature, who lived each day to the fullest. She was determined to make a difference, and she succeeded. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Kena’s memory to The Myositis Association.
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