Caroline Fierro

Caroline was preceded in death by the love of her life, Joe Fierro. Her oldest son, Tony Fierro, her daughter Mary Ellen Trujillo and her granddaughter Tina Fierro. She was a devoted mother to her daughter Priscilla Fierro, son Joseph (Terry) Fierro, daughter Carol (Ray) Fujii, and daughter in law Joanne Fierro. She cherished her 14 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, and 4 great great grandchildren. She is survived by her sister Teddy Pinon.

Caroline lived by the motto of “family”. She leaves a legacy that will live in our hearts forever. Her strength and devotion will continue to live in us. Her sparkle will shine through us.. We love you!

In Kelly, New Mexico on May 27, 1915, Carlos and Carmen Garcia were blessed with their first beautiful baby girl, Caroline. She had three brothers, Eloy, Herman, and Ray; and five sisters, Teddy, Gracie, Arcelia, Lucy, and Queenie.

In 1924 the family packed up their bags and moved to Santa Barbara, CA. There they found work along the coast, picking crops. Caroline spent her adolescent years in Santa Barbara where she continued to be the shy, little nervous girl she always was. As a family they would pack up and go to the beach. She always sat with her back against the water because it scared her. She was one who was afraid to take chances. However, there was one thing that she loved that made her the center of attention. She was a dancing queen. When she was dancing, it was as if no one was watching. She even danced her way to winning a dance contest in her youth.

In 1934, work was becoming scarce and the family left Santa Barbara and moved to Gonzales, CA. Caroline was not very happy with the move because she loved Santa Barbara, little did she know, she would be meeting the love of her life in this new town. A year after moving, Caroline met Joe Fierro and her life changed forever. Caroline and Joe married on November 27, 1936. Exactly nine months later Caroline gave birth to her first-born son, Tony. While taking care of her new family, work became hard to find again so she had to move for the third time. Family was everything to Caroline and she was very close to her mother. This move was especially hard because she had to leave her parents behind as well as most of her sisters. Her and the rest of her siblings picked up and left to San Jose. Soon all of their hard work paid off and they were able to move their parents and the rest of their sisters out to San Jose, where they would all spend their remaining time.

Times were hard, however Caroline and Joe managed to survive during the depression era and had a baby girl, named Priscilla. As her family grew Caroline had two more children Mary Ellen and Joey.

You would think Caroline had her hands full, 4 children, working part-time, caring for her husband and family, definitely not in her child bearing years, but some how managed to surprise her husband, by telling him that she was going to have another baby. To her surprise he was very happy and they had Carol Louise.

Once the kids were grown, Caroline finally made time for herself, she loved doing her hair once a week, buying clothes, with shoes and purses to match. She loved jewelry, but her most loved possession wasn’t a material object. It was the memories she received when dancing with her husband Joe. Saturday was their day; BABY SITTING was not allowed. So every Saturday, they went out with all of her siblings and their spouses and had a blast.

Caroline loved her sisters and brothers dearly. It was very important to gather together for the holidays, making family traditions for their families to follow.

She raised her kids to know and understand that family came first and that God and prayer was everything. She taught them to be respectful, to love one another and to grow into their own person.

Caroline was a big part of her grandchildren’s lives and helped raise them too. One of their favorite things about their grandma was her cooking, but you could also say that for anyone who was ever lucky enough to eat her delicious food.

Losing her husband was hard for her, they were inseparable, but she marched on and made us realize that life was worth living and she was the rock and soul of our family. Losing her daughter and son before her made her very sad, however she believed that we needed her and if she could, she would have lived forever. She loved life and caring for her family.

Even though she is gone, her memory will live on in all our hearts forever