Remembering Esther Cuevas

Good morning, everyone! My name is Wayne, also known by my family and long-time friends as Bo. Today we are here to honor and remember our beloved grandmother, great grandmother, great-great grandmother, aunt, cousin, mother, friend, and inspiration. . . Esther Castillo Romero Cuevas also known by family as mom, Grandma, Grandma Gloms, or who I and others was blessed to call Grammy.
I am sure you can imagine how challenging it is to share someone’s life story in only 20 minutes, especially someone who has lived almost 100 years. That said, I will try to share a few minutes from each generation that Grandma was blessed to live, so that we might understand how she became the woman we so love and admire.
I thought I would start this tribute by sharing the following Psalm which many of you will recognize and which was one of grandma’s favorites-
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the... Read more still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen!
Esther Cuevas was of born on April 14, 1924, in the small town of Reimswitch, Oklahoma about 2 hours east of Oklahoma City.
She was the 8th of 10 children born to Maria Antonia Romero and Ygnacio Castillo who worked as a coal miner in nearby McAlester, Oklahoma.
In 1924 McAlester was a town of about 12,000 people and was known mainly as a mining and farming town. In fact, it was considered the capital of the rapidly growing coal industry in southeastern Oklahoma, which brought with it an influx of immigrant coal miners.
On December 18, 1929, when she was only 5, an explosion killed sixty-one at the Old Town Mine in McAlester. Twenty-five of the victims were buried in a common grave. And this calamity created forty-six widows and orphaned 178 children including Grammy and her family. My Tia shares how grandmas’ brothers and sisters remember gathering in the school gymnasium as the remains of many of the victims were displayed for identification including their father.
A few years later around 1935/1936 the family left Oklahoma and came to Los Angeles, California. As the story goes her mother hired a man to drive the family to California and paid him for his time and efforts by giving him their car. They settled in East Los Angeles where my grandmother would one day meet and in 1942 marry Espiridion Gutierrez Cuevas. . . Grandpa Speedy.
In 1943, Grandpa Speedy joined the US Navy and Grammy became a war bride. By 1944 she had her first two daughters, my mom Linda and Tia Jr/Esther and in 1949 my Tia Janet. Through these fine fruits came:
9 Grandchildren – Bo, Kelly, Lynn, Dorian, Karla, Suzanne, Anthony, Lee and Dean
14 Great Grandchildren – David, Christina, Michael, and Victoria; Christian and Erica; Brandon and Allison; Alex; Dominic, Xavier, Laila; Dominique; and Tristan
12 Great-Great Grandchildren, David (3 Akira, Ezra, Winter), Christina (3 Ethan, Evalyn, Elias), Christian (2 Jason and Makayla), Erica (2 Rowan and Ryker), Alex (1-Jaime), Dominique (1- Ace)
And I believe if I counted correctly, she had a total of 35 grandchildren. . . and a partridge and a pear tree.
After their divorce in 1954, Grandma became a single mother and worked various jobs to support her children and was eventually hired in 1962 by MMM where she primarily worked as a quality control inspector and which later in 1965 relocated to Camarillo, California where she bought and paid for her first home shortly after inventing the “post it notes”. In 1987 she retired after 25 years and was blessed to receive her well-earned pension checks until last month.
I had many conversations with Grandma regarding how she was able to financially do what she did when so many others were not. She would walk me through her financial process that she learned from my grandfather on how to pay bills, balance her checkbook each month, and always remind me of how important it was to have a budget. She shared how she built her credit up over time and was eventually able to save and borrow the first $1000 she put down to buy her home. Which she recounted left many of her friends at work asking her “Esther are you sure you can afford it?” Some of those who later came to her to borrow money which she would lend without interest.
I have many fond memories of her home in Camarillo and how we would take trips to go visit her. It seemed so far but it was so fun and adventurous. We would spend days at a time, especially during the summer riding tricycles and bicycles around her neighborhood. Going over to the A&W hamburger stand for root beer floats, going to the strawberry farms, the local beaches near Santa Barbara, and just having fun visiting and enjoying time together as a family.
Grandma really loved to travel and over the years she traveled to many places including Europe, The Holy Lands, Mexico, and various states. She was enamored with Mexico and revisited many times. She especially loved the ancient sites and ruins. My cousins Lee, Dean, and I were blessed to travel with her when I was around 12 to Mexico City, Puebla, Guanajuato, Taxco and more. It was one of my first trips to Mexico, the place I now call home where I live with my wife Laura who Grandma loved and who was blessed to enjoy many phone and video chats. Grandma truly loved speaking Spanish with Laura.
I think one of the curiosities about Grandma was that she would travel alone, with tour groups, family members and even with my Grandma Lou who married my Grandpa Speedy after his divorce from my grandma. I think she found it entertaining and humorous, and probably even enjoyed the fact that it may have annoyed him a bit. But they did truly enjoy travelling together.
After grandma retired, she sold her home and moved back to Southern California and settled in Lucerne Valley located in the high desert area. Grammy really loved her 5 acres there on the backside of Big Bear. She enjoyed her gardens, her good friend, companion and pet, Moe. She purchased a Ford large truck and would use it to go garage and rummage sales. Filling it up with whatever bargains and deals she could get her hands on. Many of us enjoyed visiting grandma up at her property, just relaxing, playing games, climbing her rock hills, and of course eating.
My grandma is well known for her love of food or perhaps more accurately her love of eating. I guess it truly would be an understatement to say grandma loved to eat. I think Forrest Gump’s mom probably got her famous life philosophy and quote from Grammy - “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know if you or it will be here tomorrow, so let’s enjoy and eat it all up today!” I still remember when I asked her on her 97th birthday to share some words of wisdom she said, “Be Happy and Eat what you want!”
About the time that turned 81, she made the decision to sell her truck and move in and share a home with my mom in La Mirada. This is probably where many of you probably came to know her and spend time with her.
Grandma loved many things including gardening, reading, and watching movies. She was an avid reader until she simply was not able to due to her eyesight. She loved the Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark movies, and I am confident that her “Her Force will be with us always” for as Yoda shared, we are “Luminous beings are we not, not this crude matter.”
Indeed, I am confident that Grammy will live on through each of us in her own special way because although we may be different, we are united in our love and appreciation for her and the time she shared with each of us.
Grandma taught us and shared many life lessons, and even though she had much to share she also was still learning and seeking to understand our Divine Creator, Heavenly Father and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She would share with me, that God kept her around so that she could truly learn to love, because she said she really never knew how to love; but she shared with me that she did discover this gift through the blessing of her grandchildren especially her great and great-great grandchildren. She shared how she discovered how to love through them. And it was through this knowledge and understanding that she was at peace and ready to join her family, her mother and father, her brothers and sisters, our relatives who have passed on, and who welcomed her with open arms to her eternal resting place.
I was blessed to join my Tia and mom, and the Father who administered Grandma’s last rites and watched her smile as he encouraged and supported her on her transition journey to her divine resting place.
Grandma, I am thankful for every moment and all the fun times and adventures we had together. Thank you for always treating me like your Mijo. Grandma thank you for your ears that truly listened, your arms that joined together with mine and so many others in warm embraces and friendly hugs, thank you for a love that’s never ending and a heart that is made of gold!
Family and friends, I know that each of you has a story to tell and fond memories to share, and so I invite you to do so later today at the celebration of life luncheon after today’s mass. I look forward to hearing and learning more about Grandma.
In the meantime, I pray that God will bless all of us with His Peace and Tranquility as we join together in celebrating our amazing Esther Castillo Romero Cuevas.

Thank you. Read less

Remembering Esther Cuevas

Good morning, everyone! My name is Wayne, also known by my family and long-time friends as Bo. Today we are here to honor and remember our beloved grandmother, great grandmother, great-great grandmother, aunt, cousin, mother, friend, and inspiration. . . Esther Castillo Romero Cuevas also known by family as mom, Grandma, Grandma Gloms, or who I and others was blessed to call Grammy.
I am sure you can imagine how challenging it is to share someone’s life story in only... Read more 20 minutes, especially someone who has lived almost 100 years. That said, I will try to share a few minutes from each generation that Grandma was blessed to live, so that we might understand how she became the woman we so love and admire.
I thought I would start this tribute by sharing the following Psalm which many of you will recognize and which was one of grandma’s favorites-
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen!
Esther Cuevas was of born on April 14, 1924, in the small town of Reimswitch, Oklahoma about 2 hours east of Oklahoma City.
She was the 8th of 10 children born to Maria Antonia Romero and Ygnacio Castillo who worked as a coal miner in nearby McAlester, Oklahoma.
In 1924 McAlester was a town of about 12,000 people and was known mainly as a mining and farming town. In fact, it was considered the capital of the rapidly growing coal industry in southeastern Oklahoma, which brought with it an influx of immigrant coal miners.
On December 18, 1929, when she was only 5, an explosion killed sixty-one at the Old Town Mine in McAlester. Twenty-five of the victims were buried in a common grave. And this calamity created forty-six widows and orphaned 178 children including Grammy and her family. My Tia shares how grandmas’ brothers and sisters remember gathering in the school gymnasium as the remains of many of the victims were displayed for identification including their father.
A few years later around 1935/1936 the family left Oklahoma and came to Los Angeles, California. As the story goes her mother hired a man to drive the family to California and paid him for his time and efforts by giving him their car. They settled in East Los Angeles where my grandmother would one day meet and in 1942 marry Espiridion Gutierrez Cuevas. . . Grandpa Speedy.
In 1943, Grandpa Speedy joined the US Navy and Grammy became a war bride. By 1944 she had her first two daughters, my mom Linda and Tia Jr/Esther and in 1949 my Tia Janet. Through these fine fruits came:
9 Grandchildren – Bo, Kelly, Lynn, Dorian, Karla, Suzanne, Anthony, Lee and Dean
14 Great Grandchildren – David, Christina, Michael, and Victoria; Christian and Erica; Brandon and Allison; Alex; Dominic, Xavier, Laila; Dominique; and Tristan
12 Great-Great Grandchildren, David (3 Akira, Ezra, Winter), Christina (3 Ethan, Evalyn, Elias), Christian (2 Jason and Makayla), Erica (2 Rowan and Ryker), Alex (1-Jaime), Dominique (1- Ace)
And I believe if I counted correctly, she had a total of 35 grandchildren. . . and a partridge and a pear tree.
After their divorce in 1954, Grandma became a single mother and worked various jobs to support her children and was eventually hired in 1962 by MMM where she primarily worked as a quality control inspector and which later in 1965 relocated to Camarillo, California where she bought and paid for her first home shortly after inventing the “post it notes”. In 1987 she retired after 25 years and was blessed to receive her well-earned pension checks until last month.
I had many conversations with Grandma regarding how she was able to financially do what she did when so many others were not. She would walk me through her financial process that she learned from my grandfather on how to pay bills, balance her checkbook each month, and always remind me of how important it was to have a budget. She shared how she built her credit up over time and was eventually able to save and borrow the first $1000 she put down to buy her home. Which she recounted left many of her friends at work asking her “Esther are you sure you can afford it?” Some of those who later came to her to borrow money which she would lend without interest.
I have many fond memories of her home in Camarillo and how we would take trips to go visit her. It seemed so far but it was so fun and adventurous. We would spend days at a time, especially during the summer riding tricycles and bicycles around her neighborhood. Going over to the A&W hamburger stand for root beer floats, going to the strawberry farms, the local beaches near Santa Barbara, and just having fun visiting and enjoying time together as a family.
Grandma really loved to travel and over the years she traveled to many places including Europe, The Holy Lands, Mexico, and various states. She was enamored with Mexico and revisited many times. She especially loved the ancient sites and ruins. My cousins Lee, Dean, and I were blessed to travel with her when I was around 12 to Mexico City, Puebla, Guanajuato, Taxco and more. It was one of my first trips to Mexico, the place I now call home where I live with my wife Laura who Grandma loved and who was blessed to enjoy many phone and video chats. Grandma truly loved speaking Spanish with Laura.
I think one of the curiosities about Grandma was that she would travel alone, with tour groups, family members and even with my Grandma Lou who married my Grandpa Speedy after his divorce from my grandma. I think she found it entertaining and humorous, and probably even enjoyed the fact that it may have annoyed him a bit. But they did truly enjoy travelling together.
After grandma retired, she sold her home and moved back to Southern California and settled in Lucerne Valley located in the high desert area. Grammy really loved her 5 acres there on the backside of Big Bear. She enjoyed her gardens, her good friend, companion and pet, Moe. She purchased a Ford large truck and would use it to go garage and rummage sales. Filling it up with whatever bargains and deals she could get her hands on. Many of us enjoyed visiting grandma up at her property, just relaxing, playing games, climbing her rock hills, and of course eating.
My grandma is well known for her love of food or perhaps more accurately her love of eating. I guess it truly would be an understatement to say grandma loved to eat. I think Forrest Gump’s mom probably got her famous life philosophy and quote from Grammy - “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know if you or it will be here tomorrow, so let’s enjoy and eat it all up today!” I still remember when I asked her on her 97th birthday to share some words of wisdom she said, “Be Happy and Eat what you want!”
About the time that turned 81, she made the decision to sell her truck and move in and share a home with my mom in La Mirada. This is probably where many of you probably came to know her and spend time with her.
Grandma loved many things including gardening, reading, and watching movies. She was an avid reader until she simply was not able to due to her eyesight. She loved the Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark movies, and I am confident that her “Her Force will be with us always” for as Yoda shared, we are “Luminous beings are we not, not this crude matter.”
Indeed, I am confident that Grammy will live on through each of us in her own special way because although we may be different, we are united in our love and appreciation for her and the time she shared with each of us.
Grandma taught us and shared many life lessons, and even though she had much to share she also was still learning and seeking to understand our Divine Creator, Heavenly Father and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She would share with me, that God kept her around so that she could truly learn to love, because she said she really never knew how to love; but she shared with me that she did discover this gift through the blessing of her grandchildren especially her great and great-great grandchildren. She shared how she discovered how to love through them. And it was through this knowledge and understanding that she was at peace and ready to join her family, her mother and father, her brothers and sisters, our relatives who have passed on, and who welcomed her with open arms to her eternal resting place.
I was blessed to join my Tia and mom, and the Father who administered Grandma’s last rites and watched her smile as he encouraged and supported her on her transition journey to her divine resting place.
Grandma, I am thankful for every moment and all the fun times and adventures we had together. Thank you for always treating me like your Mijo. Grandma thank you for your ears that truly listened, your arms that joined together with mine and so many others in warm embraces and friendly hugs, thank you for a love that’s never ending and a heart that is made of gold!
Family and friends, I know that each of you has a story to tell and fond memories to share, and so I invite you to do so later today at the celebration of life luncheon after today’s mass. I look forward to hearing and learning more about Grandma.
In the meantime, I pray that God will bless all of us with His Peace and Tranquility as we join together in celebrating our amazing Esther Castillo Romero Cuevas.

Thank you. Read less