Hilda Rosa Cespedes Gonzales Rivalta Perez Sanchez Bernal (she loved that name, as well as the fact that so many people called her simply “Mom”), passed away quietly at Stockstill House, an 8-person home run by Marin Senior Services a few miles south of the Marshall, California home I purchased with Nancy more than a decade ago. 

Mom’s surviving sister, Gladys (“Bobi”) Cespedes, skillfully describes Mom’s early days in Cuba, her move from the small town of Rodrigo to the urban center of Santa Clara (where she worked for a photographer), her life as an au pair with the family that brought her to the United States while she was in her teens, her days in New York City’s “Village,” and her eventual marriage to my father, Jonathan Simmons. It is an extraordinary story. I think Mom would consider her greatest achievements the following: (1) orchestrating the migration of much of her family from Cuba to the United States, (2) raising her own family, and (3) creating an impressive library of quilts.

Mom engineered and partially financed the migration of a dozen siblings from Cuba to the United States. This occurred during the Cuban revolution, head-spinning changes in Cuban-U.S. relations, and the U.S. Civil Rights movement as a backdrop. Through this, Mom and Dad skillfully navigated the many struggles of upwardly-mobile migrants of the 50s and 60s. 

After Mom married my dad (thus, adding “de Simmons” to her fantastic name), she raised the five of us children: Diana (6/15/59 - 5/7/84), Ronald (10/4/60 - 11/27/08), Lynn (2/4/63 - 10/29/03), Karl (2/4/63 - 5/1/2025), and me (the youngest by a year and a half).  Mom was extremely proud of the fact that all her five children achieved four-year college degrees even though four of the five struggled with sickle cell anemia, kidney disease, or both. (I was the only child born without either disease.)  Mom and Dad ensured we were raised in a loving and stable environment while helping to raise or lend support to countless other families. Mom also became a mental hygiene therapist, one of the first to arrange for de-institutionalized persons to live in residential suburban homes. Add to this that Mom and Dad always had at least one or two significant money-making side gigs. Mom sold re-upholstery and photography services, owned and managed a thrift store, and made jewelry to name of few of her ventures.

After the death of my sister, Diana, Mom decided to learn to quilt so she could finish one of Diana’s quilts.  Mom quickly became a master quilter.  A book of her quilts, Crossing Borders, is available on http://blurb.com.   

Most of all, I cannot thank Mom and Dad enough for maintaining such a stable and loving relationship— one that provided me with a sterling example of partnership and that instilled in all their children the belief and faith in the notion that all happiness begins at home. 

— Abraham

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