Andy, and a family's sorrow

The blip is Andy, the piano tuner, visiting again to work on my "free" gift of a spinet piano. It has so far been a great a project for Andy. It keeps slipping out of tune, and despite her efforts, it may be too old to fix. She will try once more on February 15, but she and I both fear that this spinet, which was made the year I was born, has travelled as far as it can go. She told me this morning that the system of monthly payments now popular for automobiles was originated by piano sellers long before there were any cars. I had no idea. The memorial for the man who gave me the piano is January 30. 

What I really want to talk about is Juan Villarreal, who died this morning. He first appeared in my journal in 2014, but my favorite of my blips of him is this one. My all-time favorite of him is the extra, made by Seth at the end of their visit to Arizona in 2021, after the Covid year when they didn't see their Arizona grandparents at all. I think I have posted it before, but I never tire of looking at it. Juan and Maria FaceTime the children often, and they have never missed a birthday or holiday. They've always been there, on the iPad, taking part whenever there was something to celebrate.

Juan adored Bella and Evan. Cristina said his last words were, "Go to my wallet and get $20 for Evan." She was the only family member with him when he died during the attempt of a group of nurses to resuscitate him. She was able to stay in the room with his body for a while before they took him away. Seth and the children will fly down on Saturday to Arizona for his funeral. 

He was a hard-working man who loved physical work, gardening, animals, and family. Born in Mexico, he had ten siblings, and as a young man he worked in the fields, where he met Maria, who was then also a field worker. Cristina was born when they were both still teenagers. A few years later they had another daughter; and then a son. Sadly their son died in a terrible accident when he was in his twenties. 

Juan and Maria got American citizenship as soon as they could, and all their children were born in the USA. For years they kept in touch with their family back in Mexico and helped them financially when they could. Juan was good natured, cheery, and loved a challenge. He did construction, building, uprooting dead trees, clearing land: good hard honest work. During the Trump years he worked on the border fence being erected to keep out other people who looked and sounded like him. He needed the work. He detested Trump and his immigration policies. He did hard physical work until he had a stroke while he was visiting Portland in 2016. Without work, he struggled to find meaning. Since that stroke, he never recovered full use of his left arm and leg, and he began having various health problems, mainly with his heart, which is what killed him in the early hours of this morning.

We will all miss him, especially Cristina, her mom, his other daughter, and his grandchildren.