Terence "Terry" McGuire

Terence "Terry" McGuire Jr. passed away on August 15, 2017 at his home in Grand Terrace surrounded by his family and friends. Terry was born in Dundee, Scotland on May 16, 1947. He came to America with his parents, Terence McGuire Sr. and Agnes Wallace McGuire when he was nine years old. The family settled in Morristown, New Jersey.

Terry and Sally McGuire were married in Florham Park, New Jersey on October 16, 1965. They would have been married fifty two years in October 2017. Terry and Sally moved from New Jersey in 1975 with their two children, Terry and Christy and settled in Rialto before moving to Grand Terrace in 1989.

Terry worked in the food brokerage business as a Sales Representative for Bateman Brokerage and Kelly Clarke/Acosta Brokerage for more than twenty years.

Terry was an avid golfer and will be remembered by his family and friends as a long time "Dallas Cowboy” and “USC " football fan! He was most proud of the fact that he was able to study under Master Dave Hopkins and achieved his "Black Belt" status in Kung Fu San Soo on May 21, 2016.

Terry was fortunate to have many friends from many walks of life. He could carry on a conversation with anyone and told "jokes" to everyone! He was a true salesman!

Most of his time during the last 12 years of his life was spent with his granddaughter, Ashlee. She was the "Sunshine of his Life" and they had a "bond" that Ashlee will carry with her for the rest of her life. She was a great comfort to him during his last days with us.

Terry is survived by his wife, Sally, son, Terry McGuire III, daughter, Christy McGuire and granddaughter Ashlee McGuire. He is also survived by his sister, Marie Esposito, brother, Patrick McGuire and sister, Elaine Vittalero. He also has many nieces and nephews who will remember him always.

A Celebration of Life will be held at Montecito Memorial Park on Saturday, September 2 at 10:00 AM followed by a Catholic Funeral Mass in "All Souls Chapel "at Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before I begin to talk about Terry and our life together, I'd like to thank everyone who is here and those who have sent cards & flowers, and posted Facebook messages. I'm overwhelmed at the amount of support I've received and Terry would be humbled to know that he had touched so many of your lives. I'd also like to thank those of you who spent the last 11 days of Terry's life with me and my family. I can't thank you enough for helping me to spend as much time with him as possible. Thanks to those that made dinner, brought me dinner, worked on the El Camino, mowed the lawn and last, but certainly not least, went to Chillz to get my daily iced tea! I especially want to thank two special caregivers, Vivian and Andrea, who helped Terry to live his final days at home with dignity. Caregivers are a special gift from God. Both Vivian and Andrea are also friends and have known Terry for many years. I'll never be able to repay all of you for showing so much love, respect and compassion for Terry and I.

Terry was born in Dundee Scotland on May 16, 1947. He first came to America when he was five years old with his Grandma McGuire on the Queen Mary to be in his Aunt Betty's wedding. He returned again with his Mom and his sister Marie in 1956 and settled in Morristown, New Jersey. His father had come several years before to make a home for them here in America. His twin brothers, Bill & Rick and sister Elaine were born here in America. He became the 'man of the house" at the age of 14 when his parents divorced. His Mom relied on him and his sister Marie to help with the twins and Elaine, household chores and school in addition to a part time job as a bus boy at the Bottle Hill Restaurant.

I met Terry when I was fourteen years old. Two of my friends and my sister Connie and I walked home from school every day and stopped by the local soda shop to hang out. Terry was working there as a "soda jerk" as they called it in those days. Of course, he was handsome, had beautiful green eyes (that turned steel grey depending on his mood) and he was funny, so my friends and I were awestruck at first glance! To this day, all I can remember is that I would order a coke every day, tear the paper from the straw into tiny pieces and spill the coke.

Yes, every day…. So of course he had to come and clean up the table.

He didn’t tell us jokes back then but he would make us laugh all the time just by saying silly things to us. Of course, it didn’t take much for a cool, handsome, older guy to make four fourteen year old girls giggle! We also used to play the juke box and after some time Terry & I both liked to listen to Gayle Garnett's, We'll Sing in the Sunshine! It became our favorite song.

One of Terry's favorite things to do back then was to roller skate at the Florham Park Roller Rink. So, of course, it became one of my favorite things too. Our dating consisted of meeting at the Rink or the "Colony" which was the name of the soda shop.

After several months of "hanging out" we met each other's families and began "going steady". We began writing love letters to each other almost every day. I hadn’t read them in years and pulled them out a couple of weeks ago. My daughter Christy was amazed at the fact that I still have them almost 54 years later. She read several of them and found that her Dad was actually very romantic when he was a young stud and didn’t have any trouble communicating his feelings to me. He was determined that we would get married someday. In one particular letter, she found that we were making plans to marry when I finished High School and I had already picked out an engagement ring.

Well, God had other plans for us and we were married on October 16, 1965. Terry began working two jobs to support us and our son Terry who was born the following year. Christy McGuire arrived nine years later.

In early 1974, Terry and my brother-in-law Tom decided to take a road trip to California to check it out to see if they thought it was somewhere they wanted to raise a family. Tom sent me a memory from that trip that he wants me to share with all of you.

Sally this is for Terry. I first met Terry nearly 50 years ago when I started dating his sister Marie, now my wife of 45 years. The memories over those years could fill a book, but if you will indulge me, I would like to share one. In 1974 Terry and I made a road trip to California to try a new life. Now, you can't spend three weeks and 7000 miles in a Toyota with someone and not end up hating him or becoming brothers. We became brothers. On our way home we wanted to see the Grand Canyon but the closer north rim was closed. Undeterred, we drove 189 miles out of our way to visit the south rim. It was well worth the trip. As the sun sat low in the sky we grabbed our guitars and walked down to a small ledge. We had no song in mind, just chords and melody that came to us as we played. The acoustics were amazing. We were alone in the canyon, playing our guitars. As the sun set, lights from the canyon floor, made it hard to tell where the sky ended and the canyon began. We made our way back to the rim and found that people had gathered at the top, listening to US! Now neither one of us are Santana or Clapton, but there was applause. It was magical. So here's to you, my brother. I will miss you, but I hope we can meet again someday on that ledge and play once more .

We left New Jersey on December 24th, 1975 in a 1974 Ford Pickup and a 14 foot trailer and $1000. to our name! We arrived in Banning, CA. on December 31st and drove directly to Pasadena the next morning to see the Rose Bowl Parade! Yup, we were crazy kids!

Within 2 weeks, Terry had a job and we rented a house in Rialto. We didn’t have furniture so we pretty much used the trailer to sleep until we could get the house furnished. It didn’t take long and before we knew it, I was working, our son Terry was back in school and playing football, and Terry was a coach for Junior All American Rialto Youth Football. The name of the team was the "Cowboys"

We purchased a home three years later and then became landlords after purchasing our second home before moving to Grand Terrace. Terry was a salesman for a food brokerage and used to call on GT Market in Grand Terrace when he came across the new homes being built on Nightingale Way. He came home one day and told me he found a new home for us! We moved to Grand Terrace in December 1989.

Fast forward to 1997…… Many of you know that I was planning a 50th birthday party for Terry in May of 1997. Plans were in place to have a special event at Dave & Buster's and Terry's Mom and a few other relatives flew in from New Jersey as a surprise. Well, to all of our surprise, Terry decided to have a heart attack on his 50th birthday. He ended up in the hospital, the party was cancelled and his family went to visit him in the hospital! Imagine his surprise when they showed up. He was still waiting on the results of his heart attack so of course he thought they flew in to say their goodbyes!

This was actually the beginning of Terry's nine lives…. After the heart attack, he had a five year battle with pancreatitis which had him in and out of the hospital for months at a time and multiple surgeries. He then had melanoma skin cancer and was again fortunate to stay with us. Three years ago, he was diagnosed with squamous cell skin cancer and fought this battle until August 15th.

After his heart attack, Terry decided to join Dave Hopkins, Kung Fu San Soo Martial Arts. He was determined to get his Black Belt and managed to go to classes in between surgeries and hospital stays. On May 21, 2016 he received his Black Belt. He had surgery for his newly diagnosed squamous cell skin cancer on May 25th. Yes, he put off his surgery for three weeks so that he could do his demonstration and receive his black belt. He loved his Kung Fu family and told everyone who would listen to him about Dave Hopkins and Kung Fu. I want to personally thank Dave Hopkins and all of you that helped Terry to achieve his dream of getting the Black Belt designation. He was honored to be one of you and I appreciate you being here for him today.

Terry had several other interests and hobbies. As you all know, he was a True

Blue Dallas Cowboy fan since the day they played the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Championship Game on December 31st, 1967. Yes, that long! He never gave up on them, stuck with them win or lose. He yelled at the TV a lot but never gave up!

He was also a USC Football fan. He loved to go out there on the train and hang out before the game to listen to the band and of course take pictures with the cheerleaders! Sometime he went to the game and other times he just hung out at one of the local sports bars to watch the game.

Although he wasn’t able to golf for more than a year, golf was his lifetime hobby. He loved it and from what I understand he was a pretty good golfer! But then again, he was always determined to do his best so I wouldn’t expect him to be anything but a good golfer. He played many golf courses over the years but by far the most famous and probably the best was Pebble Beach! He was fortunate to play there three times.

Terry also loved to meet up with his Starbucks buddies every morning and help them solve all the problems of the world! Now if you’ve ever been to Colton Starbucks on Washington Street, you could see this group of gentlemen every morning about 8:30 am. Terry would drive down there in his blue El Camino and say hello to all the Starbucks partners and ask how they were doing and maybe give them some friendly advice on their life troubles at the time. He especially liked to talk to the young people and encourage them to pursue their dreams! To his Starbucks buddies, thanks for listening to his jokes and to the Starbucks employees who loved him, my thanks for making him feel like a special customer! He loved all of you.

Terry loved kids and kids loved Terry! His nieces and nephews and many of our friend's kids think the world of him. He loved talking to kids and playing with kids. His grown up nieces and nephews remember him always being supportive, encouraging and always fun! My brother Joe's four daughters came out here for a surprise visit in May to spend time with him. He actually rode bikes at the beach with them. There are some grown up kids here today who remember playing chess with him and checkers with him….and sometime they thought he cheated!

I received an email from my brother Sal who has great memories of him and Terry from the time he was twelve years old. I'd like to read that to you now.

Sally, although we are thousands of miles away and cannot be there for you, Christie and LT, I just wanted you to thank Terry for the memories he left me. Here are just a few. At age 12 he introduced me to the Dallas Cowboys when they were coached by Tom Landry. In the late sixties they were the NFL powerhouse at that time dominating the league. He knew all the players, especially the wide receivers and running backs and would point them out to me when we watched the games on Sundays. Playing touch football on the bowling alley lawn with me and all my friends, PRICELESS!

The summer of 1972, Terry and I worked for a Jewish builder by the name of Jack Glintzman. You were living on Brooklake Road. Terry would pick me up in his Black GTO and we would ride out to Martinsville to the job. We played the Allman Brothers "Eat A Peach" album everyday. One of his favorite songs on that album was Blue Sky. It was written by Dickie Betts the lead guitarist. He loved Dickie Betts. Dickie played an awesome lead in that song which made him famous. The Eagles, we can't forget those guys along with Eric Clapton we listened to them too. Last but not least his laugh, and his natural ability of telling stories and jokes to make us all laugh. I understand you have been playing music he liked. If you could please play Blue Sky for him it was one of our favorites.

Speaking of kids, Terry spent the last 12 years of his life, making a difference in the life of one special young lady, our granddaughter Ashlee. He loved her more than life. Now I know a lot of you out there thought for the last twelve years while Ashlee's Mom & Dad were working, I was the babysitter. Well, you would be wrong. Ashlee's Papa was the one who watched all of those baby Einstein videos, sign language videos, Mickey Mouse, Caillou and the Wiggles and many more. Papa was the one that talked to her about everything or anything that Ashlee wanted to talk about. Papa was the one that made her laugh, sang to her, played guitar with her, and encouraged her to follow her dreams. From Kindergarten to 5th grade, Papa and I would take turns going to have lunch with Ashlee at her school. Of course, he became everyone's Papa! I hope you all know how much he loved you.

Terry & Christy, He loved both of you very much. Terry, he always wanted you to be strong. Christy, he wanted you to be brave. He was a perfectionist and he especially expected perfection from his kids and his family. Sometimes he made that very difficult for us but I know he did it out of love. As I said earlier, he became the man of the house at 13 and had to be the disciplinarian for his brothers and sisters and then became a young Dad at the age of 19. I found a quote on his Facebook page that I'd like to share with you..I think every parent can relate to this sometime in their lives. I hope you'll both remember this quote when you think about him in the future.

How did Terry spend the last few months of his life? He worried about whether I would remember to take out the trash on Tuesdays, how I would get the 5 gallon water jugs from Stater Bros., who was going to remind me to turn off boiling eggs when I leave them on the stove too long. He wanted to make sure his El Camino was running again (and it is), who will take care of Christy, making sure Ashlee graduates High School and hopefully goes to college. And he wrote a letter to his son, Terry.

Christy told him that she couldn’t promise him that she would get married or have kids, but she would continue to watch over Ashlee, visit Dallas Cowboy Stadium and travel to some of the places he wanted to see. Ashlee told him she will finish high school and would like to be a nurse someday. Me, I promised him that I would do everything just the way he taught me over the last 50 years. But I couldn’t promise that I would do it perfectly or as good as he would do it!! And Mary Beth Correra made a lifetime commitment to him that she would watch over our family. Good Luck with that Mary Beth!!

People always ask me how we managed to stay married for 50 plus years. I can tell you it isn’t easy, but the first decision you have to make is that you want to stay married. After that, it really just all depends on how hard you work at it and how much you love each other. Marriage is an unselfish commitment to another person. There are always going to be bad times and you pray that the good outweigh the bad. Terry and I managed to do that! And I will tell you that in the final months and days of our time together, I was not thinking about the bad times, only the good. I will never forget him and I will love and miss him always.

And so, Terry McGuire, until we meet again and sing in the sunshine, I like to think you're up there having a beer with your brother Bill, drinking a shot of whiskey with your Dad, telling jokes with Uncle James, having a wee cup of tea with your Mom, Aunt Betty and Aunt Ena, and being held in the arms of your Grandma McGuire.

So on August 15th my Papa passed away. I honestly don’t know where I would be without him. He taught me so much. He always told me how he wanted to see me graduate and get married and start a family. So I'm going to go to a four year college for nursing and be the first McGuire to graduate college, all for my Papa.

My Papa changed my life and many others. He will always be the person I look up to. I remember my Grandma always telling me a story before I went to bed and it was about my grandpa. She told me that when I was first born that he came up to the glass thing that I was in and started to tap on it. From that moment I knew I was going to have an unbreakable bond between me and my Papa. When I saw his face for the first time I smiled. There was just something about my Papa that was absolutely amazing. He was so funny and a very nice guy. Also he loved everyone he met. There wasn’t a mean part about him. Well to me there wasn’t.

My Papa was my best friend. I could tell him anything and he wouldn’t judge me. He was one of the best listeners. He listened to everything I had to say. And it didn’t matter if I was sad, angry, or happy he just listened.

I remember one time I was sad because these girls were taking my lunch and when I got home I burst into tears and my Papa came up and asked what was wrong. And at first I wouldn’t tell him but he said come on Ash I'm going to take you somewhere.

And he took me to my favorite place to eat and asked me what was wrong again. This time I told him and not just cause he bought me food.

But the fact was he wanted to listen to everything I had to say. I trusted my Papa more than I could trust anyone else. My Papa was one of the funniest guys I've ever met. He always made me smile. Matter of fact he made everyone smile. One of the funniest moments with my Papa was when he used to dance with me. One of the funniest moments with my Papa was when we watched TV. I think he liked my shows more than he likes his own.

But my Papa taught me that life is too short to not be happy. So I always keep a smile on my face no matter what. I have voicemails of him saying that he is getting better. It melts my heart because he was so happy no matter what. He taught us to always have a smile on our face.

As you are about to see a video of my Papa almost all of the pictures he had there was a smile on his face. He was the life of the party. Well there are a lot more things I would love to say about my Papa. But anyway I know my papa is in Heaven watching over me and my family. I love you Papa with all my heart thank you for everything.