Eulogy for Lorna Grace Navarrez Perez

My mom was strong.  My mom was proud.  My mom was beautiful.

She remained strong, proud, and beautiful throughout her entire life.  She was diagnosed with MSA, a terminal disease, and still planned for a long healthy future with the love of her life..she was strong.  She put on makeup with trembling hands and fed herself even when her body stopped cooperating...she was proud.  Her soul has always been loving, and her external beauty was to be envied...she was beautiful.

She may not have been a perfect person, but she was perfect at being Lorna Grace Navarrez Perez...By the fact she only knew a third of the words to Paper Roses and hummed the rest, and never bothered to learn the words, she was perfect at being Lorna.  By the fact she had presents in the attic assigned to no one, she was perfect at being Lorna.  By the fact that she made clothes for her one eyed chihuahua, she was perfect at being Lorna.  She was made perfect to me by her imperfections, and I will never let them go.

With my dad, she showed me true love.  Their story is what movies are made of, and their dedication to each other has set examples for many, including her children.  Within a brief and sudden courtship true love had struck and wedding bells ensued.  Despite their first year of marriage being spent thousands of miles apart their love flourished with letters of longing sealed with a wax stamp.  Throughout the hardships of leaving a home they loved, they faced a new world of discrimination and financial uncertainty-their love endured.  After making countless friends, helping establish a Fil-Am community, while raising three children their loved defined them.  Thanks to our parents and their accomplishments, our standards for love have been set high, and for that, we are thankful.

She didn't build a corporation or paint a work of art, but her life achievement is this.  The people in this room, our love for her that binds us, and how we have become the people we are because we knew her.  We are all reflections of her life achievements.

May your bodies make you strong, May your actions make you proud, And may your love keep you all forever beautiful