Mary Lou Vasquez Ilano

Mary Lou was born in the Philippines. She was the first child born to Demetria Salonga Tobias and Pablo “Del Mar” Antonio. She has four siblings: Terasita, Laura, Esther, and Florante. When Mary Lou was very young, her mother fell ill and she was adopted by family, Lucina Tobias Vasquez and husband, Cezar Mapa Vasquez and they relocated to California. Mary Lou gained three more sisters: Fernanda, Mary Jane, and Cecilia. In her teens, she moved across the country to Pittsburg, PA to live with her aunt and uncle, Nora and Santy Vasquez, and cousins, Jeff, Jun, Grace, and Rob. She was the only local Asian-American in her high school, besides one Japanese exchange student. She participated in Filipino-American culture events, in which she starred as the Singkil Princess and performed in other traditional Filipino dances such as Tinkling.

After high school, Mary Lou made newspaper headlines having enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam Era. She made her way down to Ft. Bliss, Texas, where she met the love of her life, Eduardo Rementilla Ilano. A year after they were married, she had her first child, Norman, and was honorably discharged from the military. A couple years later, they moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado and she had her second son, Ronald. Mary Lou and Eduardo were married for 35 years until he passed away in 2011. Mary Lou was able to travel the world with her family. The friendships she made from the military and duty stations in Europe turned to lifelong friends until her last days with daily and weekly phone calls, emails, social media messages, and seasonal greeting cards.

During the 90’s, she became a seasoned employee of American Greetings while in Kaiserslautern, Germany, which led her later in life, to always fix and arrange messy card stands that she would come across. When she moved to San Diego with her husband to reunite with her sons, she wanted to work. She worked with her husband in Camp Pendleton and also Kyocera with her sister-in-law, Rita. Half of the community would recognize her from CVS Pharmacy (formerly Sav-On Pharmacy), which she was in charge of the cards section and also a sales associate. Literally every regular customer was her friend.

The other half of the community would recognize Mary Lou with her sons at their events and functions all over the west coast. You could always find her at any Mixed Grounds / Freshyard events, to supporting her son, Norman’s Hip Hop, R&B, and K-Pop events. She loved to accompany both sons to many concerts such as Up Dharma Down, Yuna, Kate Earl, Sade, Air Supply, and her favorite, Mayer Hawthorne. She also attended many Sony PlayStation events at E3, Christmas Parties (as Ronald’s +1), and company picnics. She always supported her sons and encouraged them to do what they love and follow their dreams.

Mary Lou was a warrior. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in 2011, a few months after the tragic and sudden passing of her late husband. She defied the odds and obstacles of cancer for over a decade. She was able to play a big role in her granddaughter’s first six years of life. She was the rock that held everything and everyone together. Through all the pain, Mary Lou continued to smile. Her smile lit up the darkest rooms and everyone was drawn to her bright energy.

Mary Lou loved gardening, watching Filipino and Korean dramas, watching The Cleaning Lady and Virgin River, playing Pokemon Go, going to church, karaoke at her sister-in-laws (Corazon, Elenita, and Rita), hanging out with family and friends, eating out at nice restaurants, decorating the house for every holiday, but most of all, she loved spending the majority of her time with her granddaughter, Gracie-Zoey.

Mary Lou Vasquez Ilano is survived by two sons, Norman, Ronald, and her most precious granddaughter, Gracie-Zoey. She is now finally reunited with her husband, Eduardo, in Heaven.