Yolanda was a loving: daughter to father Jess Alvarado and mother Yolanda Sr. (Bonnie) Alvarado; big sister to four younger brothers Mike, Steve, Danny, and Larry; mother to Michelle, mother-in-law to Michelle’s husband Paul, grandmother to Jaiden, stepdaughter to Eleanor, and wife to David. She had many nieces and nephews: Aunt to Stevie, Cassie, Joseph, and Tyler; Siobhan, Laura, and Nick; Justin, Marcus, Alex and Marguerite. Granddaughter of Ramon and Grace Cancio, and Jess and Carmen Alvarado. Yolanda was a loving sister in law to Cynthia, Terri, Kathy; Ross, Jan, Margie, Judy; and she had many uncles and aunts who loved her dearly. She also had well over 64 cousins in her life. Yolanda was truly blessed.
Yolanda was noted for her kind heart, generosity, and devotion to her family and friends. She loved her mother and father dearly. She loved her brothers, and was always there to support them in all of their endeavors. She loved her husband, her daughter Michelle, son in law Paul, and her grandson Jaiden. She was a constant source of strength, and support.
She had a love of music, and the arts. She was an accomplished violinist, and sketch artist. She was also a very good dancer. Yolanda was a member of the Willow Glen High School Drill team, and a member of the school orchestra. Yolanda shared her love of dance with her brothers and their friends; there were many dance lessons in the Alvarado household growing up.
She will be treasured forever with great memories of the stories she created with her fabulous cooking; such dishes as her chicken mole were legendary! Yolanda loved to cook, and she would prepare dishes that she had learned from her mother Bonnie and Grandmother Grace. She carried on that tradition, and was always ready to share her recipes and techniques. Yolanda often experimented with new dishes, some of them were exotic such as Thai Food. She was a legend and a force in the kitchen.
Her loving dedication to her husband, her unwavering devotion to her family, and her steadfast work ethic led to many jobs she held to support her daughter, and contribute to her family. Yolanda worked at “Peanuts” restaurant near San Jose State University, and she worked on various catering trucks. Yolanda also worked at Bank of America as a skip tracer, at Atari in the electronics assembly department, and most importantly she worked in the field of education. This was her most rewarding job and she had her longest tenure in that field.
Her years of service in the field of education include teacher’s aide at St. Patrick’s Elementary School for several years. Yolanda’s daughter Michelle was a student there. After meeting, and marrying David on November 13,1995, her 24 years of service as a teacher aide volunteer began. Her first post was at Franklin Elementary School (1995 to 2016), and then at Dahl (formerly Hillsdale School) Elementary (2016 to 2019). The first 12 years in education was in support of her husband’s 5th grade classes, the next 12 years were in support of Kindergarten and transitional Kindergarten classes. This priceless support continued for the full duration of her marriage to David from 1995-2019.
Yolanda will also be remembered as a teacher, for in her role as teacher aide, she was often called upon to perform the duties of the teacher, and she left a lasting impact on thousands of students in this capacity. She will forever be remembered for her Artwork, which featured the use of colored pencils, paper cut-out, and other mediums. Her treasured art work projects brought much joy to her family, friends and students. Beneficiaries of her talents included David’s 5th graders, Kindergarten and transitional Kindergarten students, as well as many other teachers who sought out her skills to work with their respective grade levels.
At Franklin Elementary School, Yolanda also became a paid parent trainer for 1/2 year for the Parent Institute for Quality Education, which placed her on the Franklin campus for evening parenting classes. David fondly and proudly remembers gladly letting Yolanda taking over the teacher role (which she had already assumed in her un-official role many times) in her official capacity as a professional parent trainer that year. Yolanda was treasured by many parents and staff members who came to know her. She was a magic charm on the campus, who worked magic for all 24 years of service in the Franklin McKinley School District, and her previous tenure at St. Patricks. It was special to see her pride in finally getting some official recognition for her efforts with the PIQE job. So often she gave completely of herself to ALL of US and did not receive such official recognition. May we today, in this moment and forever more, recognize her officially and express our true gratitude to her for the outstanding and incomparable help and support she gave to all who knew her. She truly was the “wind beneath our wings” for many in our family. This is one aspect that makes her loss, our loss, tough to bear as we learn how to cope without her shining presence and assistance to help light our way.
Yolanda worked with several other teachers besides her husband at Franklin to be a teacher and volunteer in their classrooms, often for Art, which was another of her super special gifts. Franklin School beat the odds for an impoverished public school when it achieved the distinction of becoming a Distinguished School, a testament to the miracles that can happen when you have had fabulous volunteers like Yolanda supporting great teachers and staff at a school site.
A close NY friend wrote in a letter of condolences, “The purpose of life is to leave good stories. If you’ve done that you’ve done your job. I’m thinking of Yolanda at home with you, David, or in your shared classroom, or in your family home on Grand Ave. I think Yolanda has left a lot of stories. She has done her job. Rest now, in peace.”
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Crohns & Colitis Foundation https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org
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