Leonila Consuelo Lucero Lopez

Leonila Consuelo Lucero Lopez

August 20, 1931 – September 20, 2016

On this day, September 20, 2016  we lost the most dedicated, loving, devoted Mother and Grandmother. She spent her life serving, not just her children and grandchildren but others as well.  Spending most of her years working to help others.  Her honesty (sometimes brutally honest) and genuine concern for those who needed help was her trademark for life.  Through her own adversity, she learned to care and to provide and most of all she learned empathy for those in need.

She married Robert Lopez, they were married for 11 years and divorced. Together they had six children.

She had six children to raise to adulthood and through them, she was blessed with 26 Grandchildren,  40 Great-Grandchildren and  7 Great-Great-Grandchildren.  Her posterity lives on…

A very young woman who only completed the eighth grade, raised six children by herself.  She worked tirelessly with kids in tow, working on farms picking produce, onions, potatoes, cherries… to earn extra money to pay bills and to feed her children. She also cleaned homes for years to make ends meet.  Eventually, she put herself through school to gain her high school diploma and was so proud to announce that she was a “high school graduate.”  With that diploma and her bi-lingual background, came opportunities which made her realize just how important having an education was.  Throughout the 1960’s-1970’s she spent countless hours helping migrant workers with housing, visited migrant camps throughout the state and traveled to many states learning and developing programs to help create better housing and living conditions for migrant workers who were brought in from Mexico to work the fields for farmers but were not always given proper living conditions and very low pay.  Her experience working for the farmers allowed her to see first-hand just how much they needed advocates to help them learn this culture and to expect to be treated with dignity and respect for the work they were providing to the local farmers.

She spent countless hours, days, weeks and years (along with others in the community), fighting for equal rights for minorities at a time when prejudices were high and opportunities were not fluent within the minority community.  She was involved with organizations which resorted to protests and hours on end in meetings with political figures, Gov. Rampton era.  And they “made a difference!”  Differences which allowed for scholarships for minorities, equal pay and equal rights.  They paved the way…

She was involved in many community organizations, such as the Draft board, Junenile Courts, Socio,

Migrant Council, Community Action, to name a few.  Our Mother was a small but strong force to be recconed with.

Under protest, she sent two sons, Charles and Gilbert, to fight in the Viet Nam war.  They persisted in joining the Marines and were deployed to Viet Nam to fight on the front lines.  For a woman who lived her life for her children, this was one of the hardest things she had to live through.  There wasn’t a day that went by that she wasn’t on her knees praying her rosary and asking God to please bring them home and bring them home safely.  Sending care packages which they might not receive but sent them anyway, in hopes that they would receive them and help to buffer the hardships the soldiers were experiencing. Realizing that there wasn’t much a Mother could do for her sons at war, she found a way to earn them some love and kindness by showing it to local military.  She would invite at least two soldiers from Hill Air Force Base and young men from the Job Corps Center to come over to enjoy dinner for the holidays (Easter and Thanksgiving).  In hopes that someone, somewhere would show kindness to her sons so far away.  Her faith and her prayers were not in vain.  Her sons did return from Viet Nam and her FAITH in GOD has never ceased. 

Recently in a nursing home afflicted with alzheimers, I would find her with her eyes closed, praying and when I got close enough I could hear my sweet Mother praying for all of her children, naming us individually…Charles, Gilbert, Becky, Bernice, Alex and Jesse.  She lived for us, her children.

She had a special pride for her daughters, Becky and Bernice.  So proud to be the mother of two girls, she dressed them in the same outfits for so many years.   (She may have had a secret wish for twins) because she did the same with her two younger boys Alex and Jesse.   We came in sets… 2 boys- 2 girls- 2 boys.

Just as life goes on… so does death.  In early 1980’s she lost her youngest son Jesse.  This took a toll on her heart and she has never been the same.  For the first time in her life, her prayers weren’t working for her and although this loss took a part of her heart, her faith was as strong as ever.  She leaned to “her Lord” for anything she had no control over and gave thanks for everything she had been blessed her with.

She is survived by her children:  Charles (Charlene) Lopez of Denver, CO; Gilbert (Darla) Lopez of West Point, UT; Becky (Albert, Jr) Mestas of Layton, UT; Bernice “Lopez” Walton, of South Ogden, UT; Alex Lopez of Layton, UT.; 26 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and 7 great-great grandchildren..

She is also survived by four sisters and two brothers: Molly, Rupy, Frank, Fred, Olivia, Thelma.

She is preceded in death by her parents and two sons: Frank Lopez and Jesse Lopez; Also her six brothers and one sister:  Oliver, Charley, Andy, Ted, Tino, Ernie and Flora.

She will be missed by all of her beautiful grandchildren.  She was so full of advice for all of us and although there were times we just didn’t want to hear it… it turns out she was almost always RIGHT!

Funeral Mass will be held on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 10 am at St Rose of Lima Catholic Church.  A viewing will be held Tuesday evening, September 27, 2016  from 6 to 8 pm with a Vigil at 7:30 pm at Aaron’s Mortuary, 1050 S State Street, Clearfield, Utah.

Interment  in the Clearfield City Cemetery.

                                                                                       I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.

                                                                                                        I am not dying; I am entering life.