Terry Velez Romero, 72 years old. Was called home on Tuesday September 3, 2024 after her battle with Small Cell Lung Cancer. Daughter of Georgina Romero and Francisco Velez. She is one of 9 children.

Terry is survived by her 4 children: Ricardo Sr., Rosamaria, Annalinda and Emanuel. Her 12 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Her sister Georgina and brothers: Francisco, John and Roy as well as many cousins.

Terry was a caring person and willing to help anyway she could. In 1983 she left New York and relocated to Puerto Rico to help care for her bedridden grandmother Magdalena. She finished raising 3 of her 4 children in Puerto Rico.

Her daughters unintentionally were driving her crazy by being pregnant at the same time. One lived in Puerto Rico and one lived in Florida.

Terry was a very happy and bubbly person and has asked for no sadness upon her passing. I am happy to share some memorable moments with you.

Ricardo Sr’s memory is:

Ricardo Sr, Terry’s first born son. He has many memories come to light about his mother Terry. He recalls after their parents divorced, Terry worked hard to make sure her children had the best that she could give them. He recalls Terry taking them to her mother’s house for Christmas were there was a beautiful and biggest white Christmas tree in the living room as the family gathered. Ricky said Terry taught him a lot. As many may know he left the home pretty young, thinking he knew it all, and realized he didn’t and that Terry was doing her best to raise her children on her own. Terry taught her children to cook, do laundry and many other domestic duties which he was grateful she took the time to teach him. Ricky also recalls back in 1994, he went to visit Terry and his siblings, Rosie, Annalinda and Emanuel in Puerto Rico where Terry relocated to in 1983 to care for her bedridden grandmother Magdalena. Needless to say, it was such a memorable visit according to Ricky. He got bit up by some bug from head to toe and all spotted with the pink calamine lotion. He indicated that there were fun moments and a lot of laughter together. And the most recent memory was on Sept 2, 2024 while Terry was in the hospital, before Terry went to be with the Lord, Ricky went to visit, she started joking about his fluffiness and they both started laughing because he told her that he had recently lost 30 pounds. Ricky said Terry just looked at him with her eyes WIDE open. Shortly after that, they had a highlight of all highlights, her nurse came in to update that the doctor ordered a new medication and such, once the nurse left, Terry looked at Rosie right in her eyes and asked if she heard what the nurse said, which was not said, and started to raise her voice to Rosie, after Rosie stepped out of the room, Ricky went over to Terry and told her to rest assure that what she thought she heard was inaccurate, but he encouraged her not to yell at Rosie, but to borrow his cane and crack Rosie in the shin. Terry gave Ricky the biggest smile, his words are “finally, in 57 years, I didn’t get yelled at”.

Rosamaria has several memories:

For Rosie’s high school prom, Terry was Rosie’s date. They didn’t have a car so they took a ferry then public bus from Cataño to San Juan Sands hotel where prom was held. Most recently, Rosie took Terry to go see Gabriel “Fluffy” the comedian, Terry was so happy, it was the happiest Rosie had ever seen her.

Annalinda had a lot of memories:

When I was in first grade and mom helped the school get El Payaso Tatin to come to our graduation and I was the cool girl because she made it happen.

When in middle school she planned a lunch pizza birthday party for me at a local pizza place on a school day and invited all my school friends to have pizza for lunch.

When in college I got the chickenpox and the only room in the house in PR that had AC was the master bedroom so she slept in my room and let me stay in her room with the AC that she never used and turned it on full blast so that I could stay cool, not itch and stay quarantined for several weeks, while she left me pink from head to toes from all the Calamine Lotion she would put on me.

When she would babysit Andrea as a baby and would document the whole day on a piece of paper and even save the pooped diaper for us to see if she felt Andreas poop was kinda off.

When we would go to her chemo treatments and she would have me follow a routine getting her settled in her chair, cover her with several warm blankets, get her coffee and crackers and would make me have a snack too and I ended up hooked on having my weekly PB&J Uncrustable.

She always cracked up with my weirdness and comments. I loved making her laugh.

I tried to capture a little of some of the different stages of our life.

Emanuel’s memory:

Is being allowed to drive Terry’s Mercury monster car at the age of 12. He also remembers Terry wanting him to go to the selected services which was at the post office to register and instead took him to the recruiting office for the Army and he got recruited instead, he said that was the best thing they could have done.

Julio’s memory is:

Having the opportunity and Blessing of offering the communion to Terry every weekend, praying the Holy Rosary with her and trying to bring her a little closer to God.

Both Andrea and Isaiah loved the sleepovers with GranMa in the summers. She would stuff them with lots of junk food lol.

Terry used to make egg and coffee “ponches” and she would allow Isaiah to lick the spoon (pure sugar).

Andrea loved the messages Terry would record on her build a bears she would get her with all the accessories. She loved the outings to the flea market and the dog racing, also spending all day in a laundromat.

Andre loved having Terry just right across the street where he would come and visit with her after school and she always had a snack and Mountain Dew waiting for him.

Joimarie’s memory is on those trips down to Hollywood, Terry and Joimarie would go outside and just talk. Terry also would spoil Joimarie by buying a lot of make up. Terry would take her shopping and would allow her to buy anything she wanted to eat and when they reached the candy aisle Terry would grab the entire case of milk duds. Joimarie also loved watching the Spanish novela La Rosa del Guadalupe together. Joimarie also holds close to her heart when they played backgammon. Joimarie cherishes that Terry taught her how to make scrambled eggs.

Then there is Kimberly who only knew Terry for a short time but Terry would save her the bananas that were still a little green and would say: Kim would love it, save it for her.

There are so many memories shared. Terry would take Frenchies and Lil Papo to her house in Shirley for the summer breaks. Those were fun times for sure.

Elba shared that Terry wasn’t just a sister in law even though she divorced Frank, but Terry was like a sister for her, always there for Elba when she was down. Terry always lifted Elba up and put a smile on her face and would remind Elba that they needed to be strong for each other. Then would say: “Let’s have a drink!” They would laugh and reminisce about life and their kids. Elba said that Terry loved her kids, no matter what, they kept her going. They gave her the strength she needed. Elba also said Terry was a strong woman, yet very giving, caring and funny. She loved to listen to music. Elba said they would dance around the house. If Terry cried, Elba would cry right there with her. Elba calls Terry her angel!

Tracey would like to share with us her memory with Terry. The first time Tracey met Terry was when Tracey and Lil Papo went to Puerto Rico for their honeymoon. Tracey said Terry was very welcoming, loving and fun to be with. Tracey recalls that Terry made her famous ARROZ LOCO (crazy rice) which was so delicious. Since then, Tracey and Terry had kept in touch, specially when texting became a thing. Even if it was just a heart ❤️that was shared either way just to let each other know they were thinking of each other.

Terry is also remembered by many outside of the family. She began to follow Team Juju (on TikTok)and became the adoptive SWEET GRANMA to that family who’s son suffered a stroke and has been working very hard with physical therapy. Jackie (the mom of Team Juju) expressed that Terry has impacted her in a super special way. Jackie lost her grandma many years ago and she was very important in her life. When she met Terry, she reminded her of her grandmother so much, she adopted Terry as her grandmother granted Terry’s TikTok name is Sweet GranMa.

From the same group of Team Juju there is Rosita who became very close with Terry. Rosita came to Florida 2 times and Terry and Rosita were like the Spanish characters “Minga and Petraca”. Their friendship grew very quickly and strong.

Then there is Markie (also from Team Juju) who would share bible verses with Terry and Terry would give positive encouragement to Markie.

It is sad she has departed but at the same time she is now pain free.

Rest in Peace Terry, until we meet again, you will be missed and loved very much.

In lue of flowers she would like for you to donate to one or both of the charities below.

The first foundation is a very new foundation. Terry’s physical therapist lost his daughter to brain cancer in February and she was only 3 years old. His story touched Terry so much that she originally had wanted St. Jude’s instead of flowers, but decided to add his foundation since they would love to bring awareness to childhood brain cancer and hope they can find a cure.

Tough2Gether Foundation

https://www.flipcause.com/sec…

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Ways to Give: How to Donate - St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

https://www.stjude.org/give.h…

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