Terence Peter Valladares

Terence Peter Valladares was born in Bombay, India on May 19, 1930. He was born into a large family, where he was one of six brothers and two sisters. He graduated on October 1, 1966 from St. Albert’s College with honors in Classics, Philosophy and Education. He took a job at a boarding school where he taught high school students History and English. In 1958 he started working in Bhophal, India where he became very ill one day and went to the Mayo hospital to be treated. This is where he met his wife Mary who worked as a nurse in the hospital. On January 1st, 1968 Terence and Mary eloped to West Bengal and was married by her brother who is a priest. They later had two children a boy and a girl who he named after his own father and mother, Joseph and Angela. In July 1978, Terence wanted his children to have a better life and so he sold all his possessions and came to the United States with the help of his sister Audrey and her husband Ernie. He worked three jobs to make sure his family was taken care of. In 1987, Terence and his family became naturalized citizens of the United States. In 1988, Terence was in a terrible car accident where he received back injuries and was no longer able to work as a nurse’s aide. This year was the start of his long term battle with pain. Terence continued to live in pain for 35 years. As a senior citizen, Terence started attending the senior citizen center in Chula Vista where he enjoyed talking with people and playing bunco. Being that his children were living far away, he decided to move near his daughter in Hesperia, Ca. in 2002. Terence lived in Hesperia in a senior citizen mobile home park where he found a senior citizen center to play bunco. His home was near railroad tracks where he enjoyed hearing the roar of the train engines that went by. He said it reminded him of his dad. Terence lived a modest and simple life in Hesperia. He looked forward to seeing his kids and grandkids. He liked cooking, playing bunco, going to the casinos, seeing his kids and grandkids and giving his wife Mary a hard time. He was a jokester and always told interesting stories and jokes. He was happy to see his great grandson and hold him before he passed away. He was proud of his family and bragged to everyone he saw about his kids and grandkids.