Sunday, October 26, 2014
Eulogy for Angelita Ybarra-Reyna
It is with both great sadness and joy that we are here today to celebrate the beginning of eternal life for our mama Angelita Ybarra-Reyna, a life that started in Mercedes, Texas on September 23rd, 1921. She attended the Mercedes High School and later married Severo Reyna.
The obvious sadness comes from losing your mother, grandmother, sister, aunt or friend. Mama Angelita (Gela) passed away peacefully on Wednesday evening surrounded by some of our family members as she took her last breath at the Lifecare Wound Center in McAllen.
The joy comes from knowing that her mind and body has been gloriously restored and is now in heaven where we will all see her again someday.
Mama Angelita had 9 children, one died after at birth. Eight of her children are living and live nearby, except for 3 of them who live out of state. All her children love their mother with such devotion and strength that can only come from seeds mama Angelita sowed, and that was that she was a good mother who devoted her life to raising and protecting her children from harm.
As a young mother she had endless energy and strength to work hard. She tried so hard to maintained a normal home environment, despite of our constant moving from state to state as we followed the harvest of crops since they were migrant workers. During her mid-life she and dad owned and operated a restaurant where she continued to work hard.
Whether living in tents, shanties or houses she managed to keep her family well groomed. As migrant workers everyone in the family worked hard, but no one worked harder than mama. Her family did not need an alarm clock to wake them up at 4:00 AM to get ready for work out in the fields. You could hear mama Angelita pounding out tortillas with the rolling pin and getting breakfast ready. She was the first one up and the last one to go to bed and still manage to work out in the fields and do the laundry on Sundays while the rest of the kids went to church with their father. Mama Angelita never had time for idle chat, nor tolerance for horseplay. She had many acquaintances, and a few true friends who came to visit her.
In her later years when she became ill and bedridden she devoted her time to keeping updated on grandchildren and loved to see them when they came to see her and watching her favorite shows
Mama Angelita loved life in spite of being bedridden for 10 years. She did not want to die. She had an unspoken believed that life is gift from God and she wanted to lived to be 100, well, she came pretty close. Our family feel blessed to have our mother these many years.
All of us Reyna siblings would like to thank our sisters, Zoyla and Belinda for taking turns caring for our mother, since mom's greatest fear was going to the nursing home. She was in the nursing home for only few months when she became critically ill.
