Loretta Mae Curci (5/27/38 – 12/8/10) – Beloved wife, mother, grandmother and dear friend to many has completed an exemplary life on earth and now enters the paradise of Heaven in the welcoming arms of Jesus Christ. Loretta Mae Rhodes was born May 27, 1938 in Alhambra , California, and comfortably passed away on a sunny afternoon while at home with her loved ones by her side.
She will be remembered for her compassionate nature and her warm and enduring smile. Her love for her husband grew throughout their wonderful marriage of 52 years…she often described him as “my knight in shining armor” and said “if I had the chance to do it all over, I would run to the altar to marry Bob again!”. The love and extremely close relationship she had with her daughter knew no limits; they were truly the best of friends. She will be remembered by her son as a mom that loved him deeply and unconditionally, and supported him with all her heart. Loretta was the ever-present, always helpful, and supportive mother to her children and their families. Many rough roads in life were crossed with safe passage because of her untiring and selfless support. The kind-hearted nature and creativity of Loretta can be seen in each of her grandchildren. Her passion for arts and crafts was channeled into her oil paintings, jeweled miniature Christmas tree decorations, and a treasure of memorabilia that will be cherished forever. If you knew Loretta, then you knew she loved her precious doggies and treated them like royalty.
Loretta is survived by her adoring husband, Bob, and her faithful children Doreen & Dean Chandler, and Dean & Gina Curci, along with their families. Loretta will be a protective angel as she watches over her precious grandchildren: Brooke, Weston, Hayley, Chloe, Landon, and Sawyer. We will miss her more than words can express, and we will cherish her memory and all the love she gave us.
A private memorial service will be held for immediate family members on December 16, 2010.
Arrangements under the direction of Pacific View Memorial Park and Mortuary FD1176, Corona Del Mar, CA.
Eulogies given at service:
BROOKE’S EULOGY
I love my grandma so much and miss her everyday. She always had the biggest smile whenever I would see her and was filled with such joy. She was the most beautiful and caring person I have ever known. I will always remember her driving down our street each day while coming to say hello to our family. She spent so much quality time with each of us. My grandma gave big hugs and lots of “I love yous”. She always had something to share with me…whether wise advice, an entertaining story or the latest in skin care products that she had just discovered online.
She looked forward to spending time with each of her grandchildren and would stop anything she was doing just to hear the latest story from us, or any daily happening, She was so interested in everything that was going on in our lives and made us feel like we were the most important person in the world every time we spoke with her.
I have such wonderful memories of the many vacations we took with her. I love thinking about the time we went to Hawaii together. My grandma was always filled with a sense of adventure and could be counted on to be the first one in line for the waterslide! Seeing the joy on her face as she sped through the twists and turns into the pool was priceless. Another memory burned deeply in my mind was when we took a boat to explore stingrays. An entire group of 30 people disembarked from the boat and forged into the shallow water to stand among dozens of stingrays. The stingrays swam around our legs and brushed up against us. Out of terror I immediately jumped onto my grandma’s back. I spent the rest of the outing perched on her shoulders and recall her laughter as she tried to balance me and avoid a foot long stinger.
I will always treasure the memories of spending the night at her house. I also loved when she would baby-sit my brother and sister and I while growing up. The many trips we made to the candy factory, movies, Ruby’s and Balboa Island are close to my heart. We made Christmas cookies, decorated cakes, enjoyed arts and crafts and had tea parties. My grandma put her whole heart into making any time we spent memorable.
I loved all of the adjectives she used in her vocabulary. She would always say “this is the most delicious”… “this is the most extraordinary”…. “this is just incredible” as she described meals, events or adventures. My grandma had such a positive outlook on life
I love my grandma more than anything and miss her so much and cannot wait to see her again one day in heaven.
Chloe’s Eulogy to Grandma
There are so many things I love about Grandma, and I want to share some of those things with all of you today.
She was always giving me compliments about how beautiful I was to her, and how she loved my big smile, my big brown eyes, and my cute little dresses. She made me feel like I was a princess.
She gave me and my little brothers the warmest feeling of love every time we were with her or talked with her on the phone.
One of my favorite things to do with Grandma was going to the movies. She loved to do that with us a lot, and each time we went she would always buy us a bunch of candy!
My Grandma had the biggest smile on her face. I will really miss that. Her hugs were the biggest hugs.
She babysat me and my brothers often and we loved when she did.
She loved to share her doggies with me and I had fun taking them on walks in her neighborhood, and playing with them in her back yard.
Now grandma is in a happy place where she will feel no more pain. She is with Jesus in Heaven as one of his favorite angles. I wonder what her wings look like. I bet they sparkle! I know that she is in Heaven because she believed in Jesus and it says in the Bible that:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. JOHN 3:16
Grandma, I will miss you every day, but to make me feel better I will talk to you every night in my prayers.
Dean’s Eulogy to Mom
Whenever I want to be reminded of my mom, I will have to look no further than the hearts and character of my children. Her legacy carries on in their adoring smiles, in their loving hearts, and their creative minds. I’m so thankful that they got to spend so much time with her and share precious memories that we will treasure forever.
When I think of my mother, so many wonderful qualities come to mind. She was compassionate, always forgiving, quick to compliment and slow to judge. When I was growing up, she was the protector…she could always make me feel safe in her presence. When I got in trouble with Dad, she was the safe harbor to which I could run. She was a supportive counselor, always wanting to steer me in the right path. Her faith in my abilities knew no bounds. She gave me the wings of confidence to walk through life without fear. She was the doting mother that attended every game of baseball, soccer, and every lesson of sailing sabots, and presided over my Cub Scout adventures as the ever-watchful Den Mother. She encouraged me to always do my best. She never tired of supporting me through all of life’s journeys. Her faith in the Lord was strong and very inspirational to me. Her moral standards were unyielding. Kindness was ingrained in her nature. She was thoughtful and considerate to everyone she came across…always polite, always kind. She could see the good in everything and everybody…her glass was always half full, never half empty. She was the type of person that put the best interest of others ahead of her own. My mother was truly the most selfless person I have ever known. She was also among the bravest. Over the past 12 years, since Mom endured a liver transplant, survived breast cancer, underwent a knee replacement, managed diabetes with insulin shots 3 times a day, and prolonged her life with a regimen of powerful medicines, she managed to keep a surprisingly positive attitude, and she did it all gracefully. It is amazing how little she complained and how much she put us at ease with her resilience to bounce back from so much, so many times.
I have peace in my heart and comfort knowing that she is in Heaven with Jesus and with other family and friends that passed away before her. My family now has the everlasting love of my mother watching over and guiding us for the rest of our lives. Yes, she is in Heaven, and most assuredly dressed to the 9’s as she looks down upon us now wishing she could comfort our sorrow.
I will forever be thankful to the Lord for blessing me with the kind, sweet, and loving mother that she was, and I will do my best to honor her by loving my family as much as she loved me.
Mom, I love you with all my heart.
DOREEN’S EULOGY
What words could possibly describe my mom? She was simply the kindest, most loving and giving person I have ever known or ever will know. There was such a beautiful peace and joy that my mom possessed combined with a profound sense of inner strength. My mom was more than just my best friend she was a life line to me. Always there in every way for everyone in our family. She was more than just a grandma…she was like another mother to each of my children and for that I will always be grateful. My mom would baby-sit at a moments notice…happy to cancel any appointment she had to make my life easier and for the chance to spend more time with her grandchildren. We would call each other everyday and talk forever. She was always so interested in the day to day happenings in each of our lives. I have once heard that there are two ways to walk into a room….”Here I am or …There you are” My mom was truly a “there you are” person.
My mom taught us how to be active, engaged and responsible. When we were young she modeled this by being the PTA president. When I was in Brownies she was our troop leader, in National Charity League she was our grade level advisor. When my brother was in cub scouts she was the den mom. Whatever we enjoyed… she put her whole heart into as well…doing everything with such enthusiasm.
I will remembr my mom as a passionate woman. She would become so involved and excited about different ways to express herself. For many years she would make intricate stain glass windows. It seemed like each year she would have a new creative outlet. Oil painting, hand made greeting cards, knitting scarves, paper pressing, decopageing beautiful place settings, cooking, cake decorating, stenciling our fingernails with gems, and her last and most beautiful endeavor small jeweled Christmas trees. I fondly recall our last outing to buy little bits of jewelry for these trees. She insisted that we go up and down each and every isle at the swap meet for hours and hours so that she could bargain with the vendors for trinkets to add to her creations. At the days end I must have been lugging around 30 pounds of broken pieces of jewelry like her own personal sherpa. I didn’t mind though…she was beaming with thoughts of just how she was going to place each special piece of jewelry on her next masterpiece. It seemed that she found such joy in each of her hobbies…she would perfect and master her current craft and then move onto something new and become completely immersed in her new creations. I loved that about her. There was no time for going back to an old passion…only time to move forward and conquer some undiscovered and exciting art form. She was never idle…always busy at work and so enjoyed creating. She also loved to read and expand her knowledge. She could usually be found with a book by her side. Learning to “live in the moment” or learning about dreams and their significance. When I would call her in the morning and tell her about a dream I had… I knew I could look forward to at least an hour long conversation as she would spring to life and analyze my dream in every detail.
She always gave any physical endeavor 100%. Whether it was her many years of tennis, yoga or tai chi… Each endeavor came with a complete outfitting. She would have an ensemble of the latest in samurai attire for each of her tai chi stances or a shimmering scarf laden with golden coins for when she executed her latest belly dancing moves. I was so amazed that even in her last weeks of life she would force herself to get out of bed to do physical therapy. In her last month when she was at rehab sharing a room with my dad she would grab her walker, force her self to get out of bed and do marathon walks around the premises. She could be heard telling my dad as he tried to have her rest…. “Now Bob, don’t you try and hold me back.” As her body started to fail she needed special heavy shoes and stockings if she wanted to continue to rehabilitate. She would spend and hour getting those stalkings on and doing whatever it took to move forward. She was tireless and driven. She never complained. Whenever she was asked how she was…even in her last days…she always responded with “terrific” or “I’m doing great”. She was a true inspiration to me. No matter how tired or badly I felt…I couldn’t even come close to what it must have felt like to be her. A liver transplant recipient on so many mediations I couldn’t begin to count, a diabetic dependant on multiple insulin injections throughout a day, a breast cancer survivor who endured radiation…and a woman with a knee replacement and on cumadin with heart issues….and yet everyday was the best day ever. She never felt better.
My most treasured memory of my mother was the night she came home from a six week stay at the hospital when she received the gift of her liver transplant. She slept in my old bedroom in her house and I slept in the room just adjacent to hers. I was awoken at 5 am in the morning to a booming sound coming from where she was supposedly asleep. I ran into see her…. only to find my shutters and window wide open and her hair blowing in the wind as she stood there with her arms stretched out to greet the sunrise. She sang from the top of her voice her favorite theme song from Annie… “The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow…there will be sun”. I smiled with joy in my heart as I feel the depth of her gratitude to God…. that she had been given the gift of life for a second time.
My mom was a woman that took great pride in presentation. She taught me how to set a beautiful table, decorate for the holidays and make every event special. When it was Easter she would appear at the door with huge stuffed bunnies in cellophane and ribbons and baskets specially wrapped in the most marvelous way. For a birthday she would make her beautiful homemade cards with a thoughtful and loving message. She would take each grandchild shopping for hours to enjoy watching them select their gifts. For Christmas she would wrap each of my children’s gifts for me, hide them at her house and arrive early on Christmas morning laden with presents and her delicious sugar and cinnamon breakfast ring. Each of us were still in our Jammies and robes. But not my mom…true to form she was perfectly quaffed and dressed in her Christmas finest at six AM. On Thanksgiving she would help me decorate the tables, make her wonderful mashed potatoes…and even though I knew she was so tired of making her infamous lemon merange pies ….for yet another year…. she wouldn’t say a word when asked to make them again and even made me an extra for the next day. The holidays were so special because she would always be dressed with her latest in holiday attire. Christmas earrings, sweaters with animated appliqués, a necklace of light up bulbs and bells. Halloween would bring another festive sweater with pumpkin jewelry and shoes to match. On 4th of July she was certain to have her toenails painted with American flags….and to keep that toenail theme for the rest of the year because she was a proud republican.
If you walked into her home you would be sure to hear fox news blairing in the background. A daily dose of the O’Reily factor or Glenn Beck was as necessary as food and water. When she was in the hospital and unable to vote she made sure we sent in her absentee ballot. Her car had an American flag sticker at all times and occasionally she flew a flag that blew in the wind. And if you were one of her bedside aides at Hoag you could be sure to hear a lecture on the perils of obamacare for your shift of twelve straight hours.
Her favorite words were amazing, incredible, wonderful. She used those words freely and liberally. She was full of joy and her vocabulary reflected that. She was the most encouraging and uplifting person I knew. When you left a conversation with her you felt 100 feet tall. There wasn’t anything you could not accomplish…No dream too big to be obtained. Each of us knew that no one loved us like she did.
My mom was a woman of quiet yet active faith. Quiet in the way she walked her faith out by example. A Godly woman of great integrity. She loved the Lord with all her heart. She was my greatest prayer warrior. When my mom would pray for each of us I always had the feeling that she truly had a unique connection with God. When she said “I will say prayers for you about that”…I knew I could count on her to petition God unceasingly…and that if He was going to grant anyone’s prayer request… it would be hers. Never a harsh word to be said of anyone. She always helped each of us see things the way the Lord would want us to. Her faith was active in her many bible studies over the years. As well as her instance in putting everyone else’s needs above her own and the way she called each of us to live a life according to His will.
I will always remember her parting words to me. “You will take care of me when you take care of your children and my great grandchildren”. When she had no strength left, I bent down to softy kiss her cheek. She took her weakened arms around my neck and squeezed me with all her might. “I love you sooooo much”….were the last words I heard. At the very end as she labored for breath…one of my best friends who had recently lost her mom said… “Your mom is out of breath because she is running with all her might… she is in her final stretch…now running into the arms of Jesus”
I was reminded of a verse from Hebrews 12:1 “ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”
And my favorite verse in Isahia 40:31 “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”. My mom truly labors no more.
Mom I will miss you so very very much and love you every day of my life.
HAYLEY’S EULOGY
I have no doubts when I say I have the best grandma in the world. God has blessed her with so many amazing character traits that she role modeled to me and everyone around her. A few of those are strength, kindness, generosity, wisdom and a loving heart. My grandma always had such a joyful spirit that brightened my day instantly. Whenever I think of her, I think of her warm gentle spirit with a big smile across her face. Not a day goes by when I’m not thinking about her or missing her. It’s safe to say that she was like no other grandma. One of my fondest memories with her was rocking out to the eagles playing air guitar at thanksgiving. She always put others before herself and had open ears to listen to whatever I had to say. She was such a beautiful person on the inside and out. She has really taught me through her sicknesses how to persevere when times get hard and to look at the bright side of everything. Over the past few months iv grown especially close to her from spending time with her in the hospital. She could never say no to a foot rub and that became a daily routine for us. She would tell me in many occasions that life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. She was always looking for ways to make everyone around her as content as she was by a simple compliment or her contagious laugh. I can’t wait for the day when I get to see her again in Heaven, she means so much to me and its so hard to let go of someone so special. I remember her always introducing me to her latest artsy projects and I would love to spend countless hours with her either trying new nail designs or creating greeting cards. Spending time with her never got boring. Most of all, I am going to miss seeing her at my dance shows. She was my biggest fan and never missed one since the day I started dancing. She would also support me in other things such as when such as when I created earrings she would buy all of them from me no matter how horrid they looked. She and I had so many things in common I am so proud to share her middle name. I love you so much grandma and I can’t wait to see you again one day.
WESTON’S EULOGY
My Grandma Gung Gung
I was fortunate enough to grow up with a grandma that lived only a few minutes away. I usually got to see her everyday and she was a very large and influential part of my life. While my sister was sick in the hospital, my grandma looked after me like she was my own mom. I remember how I used to spend most of my days during that time at her house; I’d wake up to her making me pancakes and go to bed with her tucking me in. I always felt safe when she would pray for me right before bed asking the Lord “To send angels down to guard me as I sleep.”
She was always there for me and I looked up to her for that.
My grandma was always full of life and was always “seizing the day.” She was one of the happiest people I’ve ever known and she made everyone around her feel better. She was also a fighter. Ever since her liver transplant, she struggled with her health; but always seemed to pull through. She battled diabetes for the past ten years as well. Every time I went to dinner with her she’d have to inject herself with insulin, but she would never complain. She is the strongest person I have ever known and her will to live is truly inspirational. She has had a truly wonderful life filled with love, happiness and many people who love her and were able to experience her joy. I’ll never forget when I was watching the Eagles Live on DVD with her and she suddenly grabbed a tennis racket, stood up on my couch and played the air guitar.
When I got a phone call a few months ago from my family saying “grandma is sick in the hospital…” I thought she’d pull through like every other time, and she did for longer than anyone else I know could have. But I was also scared I wasn’t going to see her since I was away at college. Fortunately, she stayed healthy long enough for me to spend just a little more time with her that I will never forget; and I thank her for that. I also thank the Lord that she went peacefully and with her whole family by her side. I will miss her so much because of how much she meant to me, but I’m now glad that she’s in a better place. I love you grandma and know I will see you again!
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