Blanca Serna Ayala

Blanca S. Ayala, a lifelong San Antonian and beloved mother, grandmother and aunt, died Jan. 23 after suffering several medical complications brought on by a fall. She was 86.

Born on March 29, 1928, on the city's West Side, she was the last of 15 children born to Pablo Serna, a man of the borderlands, and Catarina Rios Serna, an orphan who immigrated to Texas from Mexico in 1900. Blanquita --- as she was best known --- grew up during the Great Depression. She fondly recalled attending Public School No. 40 ("La 40"), which became Lorenzo de Zavala Elementary School, where she played Snow White in a play and earned numerous certificates for reading.

While her brothers served in World War II, most of her sisters worked and started families. Blanquita was able to stay in school longer than any of her siblings, completing ninth grade at Sidney Lanier School. She first worked at a laundry and cleaners.

The beautiful girl met a handsome young man there. She was 16 when she married Ricardo Ayala, another first-generation Mexican-American who came to San Antonio from Martindale to work. They had four children and became beloved figures in both their large extended families. On a limited income, they bought two homes, eventually renting one. Their children don't remember being poor because all their needs were met. Their home was filled with chores, activity, fun and love.

A stay-at-home mom, Blanquita socked away money by taking in laundry and caring for her sister Emma Martinez's children. One of them, Catherine Martinez, would become Blanquita's devoted caregiver at the end of her life --- along with Cathy's daughter and son-in-law Malena and Matt Martinez. Blanquita adored all of them.

After her husband's death in 1970, she raised two of their four children alone, never remarrying. Over the years, she served on PTAs, band booster clubs and as a supporter of her children's many activities, including student government, class leadership, drama, service clubs and band. She and her husband insisted that all their children play musical instruments: clarinets, trombones and trumpets.

She met all her obligations and then some, paying off a mortgage on her own by working at a variety of jobs. She sold Avon products and worked as a sales lady at Joske's Las Palmas, a cashier at a bank's parking garage in downtown San Antonio and a cafeteria lady at Cooper Junior High School. For decades afterward, she would run into former students who remembered her, including big burly guys who thanked her for serving them extra food.

Blanquita was a lifelong Democrat (proudly voting for President Barack Obama), a movie buff and great cook. She loved through food, making thousands of tamales throughout her life, millions of tortillas and countless pots of beans and sopitas. She was a decent gardener, growing chiles and yerba buena, the latter was her remedy for everything from tummy aches to anxiety. She had numerous hobbies throughout her life, including quilting, embroidery and crocheting. She sewed by hand. She loved a good find at a thrift stop and stopped for yard sales. Every Easter, she made dozens of cascarones, getting more elaborate in their creation every year. She sold those, too. When a young Henry Cisneros was as a councilman and mayor, she helped her son Albert Ayala make colorful paper flowers for Mary Alice Cisneros. They decorated the mayoral family's Volkswagon bug, seen by thousands of San Antonians in Battle of Flowers Parades.

Though naturally a nervous nellie, Blanquita became a strong, independent woman and passed on that confidence on to her children. She suffered several painful chapters in her life, including the death of one son, Albert, in 1999, and the long estrangement of another. She forever carried his photograph as a young Marine in her wallet.

She also suffered several challenging medical diagnoses, including diabetes and heart disease but none as heartbreaking as Alzheimer's disease. Still, she had good days and happy moments during her last years. Last summer, she thoroughly enjoyed a vacation at South Padre Island with her family and the recent births of a great-granddaughter in South Texas and a great-great-granddaughter in Iowa. She also marked a happy Christmas and lovely New Year's Eve, enjoying several tamales.

But in the early morning hours of Jan. 17, she probably lost her balance just outside her bedroom door and fell, breaking her hip. The last week of her life was tough, but her family followed her wishes set out in a living will. She spent the last 2 1/2 days of her life in Vitas Hospice, a lovely place where her daughters, Mary "Macie" DeLeon and Elaine Ayala never left her side. Other family members joined the round-the-clock vigil, including her granddaughter Deborah Holt, who traveled to San Antonio from Ulsan, South Korea, immediately after hearing of her fall. Grandsons Fonso and Rick DeLeon from South Texas rushed to her side, as did other relatives, including grandson Richard "Jung" Ayala Jr.

On the last day of Blanquita's life, family members from ages 2 to 68 circled her bed, placed their hands on her, prayed and gave thanks that she was now at peace.

Blanquita was preceded in death by her parents and siblings, her husband and her son Albert. She is survived by two daughters, Mary Blanch DeLeon (Alfonso) and Elaine Ayala; son, Richard Ayala; eight grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews and friends.

A rosary will be said for her at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, at Treviño Funeral Home, 226 Cupples Road. Visitation is from 5 to 9 p.m.

Her funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 30, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 1321 El Paso. St., where she received all her sacraments.

She will be buried at San Fernando Cemetery No. 2 on Castroville Road.

The Ayala, DeLeon and Martinez families would like to thank the kind people of Vitas Hospice, all those who visited her during the last week of her life and those who offered up prayers for her.