Luz Monillas Castillo

Luz M. Castillo, born on July 4,1932 in Manila, Philippines. She was the sixth child in a family of 13 siblings. Luz grew up in a Catholic family, instilling strong values that she carried throughout her entire life. In the Philippines, Luz operated a beauty salon and a coffee shop in a single building. She was quite the entrepreneur, traveling to Hong Kong and buying goods to import back to the Philippines. Her family was the center of her life. She was generous with her siblings, helped raise her nephews and nieces, and later had her daughter, Marylou.

In the early 1970s, Luz immigrated to the United States and made Seattle her home. Shortly after, she met her husband, Leo and their family expanded, with the addition of her stepchildren, Eileen, Lennard, and Leo. Together, they ran a catering and baking business, Luz baked the best wedding cakes! She was actively involved with the Filipino community, and enjoyed playing Bingo and Mahjong regularly.

In 2001, Luz independently moved to Las Vegas, NV. She worked at Costco, serving food samples and had access to Bingo at the local casino by her home. She welcomed any family members who visited Vegas into her home, where she served a warm bowl of beef stew with rice and her homemade banana muffins.

In 2011, Luz relocated to San Jose, CA with her daughter to spend more time with family. Marylou and Luz were two peas in a pod, they traveled the Bay Area to attend her three great granddaughters’ graduations, birthday parties, or basketball games, or just to hang out. In their pastime, or when family members were in town, they took day trips to nearby casinos, where they reminiscenced and shared delicious meals together.

At Luz's 89th birthday celebration in July 2021, family members from around California, Seattle and Virginia

showered her with love and well wishes. In September, she was able to attend her brother Celso’s birthday party in Seattle. In her final week, Luz was surrounded with prayer, love and support from her daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Luz is survived by her children: Marylou, Eileen and Mike, Lennard, Leo and Carrie, Sheila and Rick. Grandchildren: Richard and Nancy, Romeo, Lynnette and Oliver, Jordan. Great grandchildren: Olivia, Annabella, Isabella, and Ellianna.