Mom's Life Story

Margarita Fernandez Lutes was born in Juarez Mexico on May 22, 1931. When she was 9 her parents were killed in a car accident. She was separated from her siblings and was sent to an orphanage in a Catholic convent in Mexico. As she grew in the orphanage she had thoughts of becoming a nun. However, as she explained to me, the nuns were quite strict. No mirrors were allowed in the building. When my mom was a teenager she got caught looking at her reflection in a stone basin. She was quite beautiful. She was severely beaten with a rod for this show of vanity, as the nuns called it. This act disheartened her greatly. When she turned 18 she left the convent. She would later explain to me that the two good things that came from those 9 years at the convent was that she learned a great deal about the Catholic faith which she came to rely on greatly in her later years and that she learned how to read, write and speak Latin. When she was 18 she went to the U.S. In the late 1950's she met my dad. Their first child was born in 1959, her name was Rita Sue. Within a year of Rita being born mom and dad started to see a problem with Rita’s development. Soon after taking Rita to the doctor they discovered that she was developmentally disabled. The following year in 1960 mom and dad had another child. Her name was Almyra Lynn. As with Rita, Myra too had developmental problems. Mom was heartbroken. Soon after Myra was born mom and dad split up for 2 years. During this time Mom had another daughter, my half sister, who was born in 1962. Mom put her up for adoption without informing anyone about her. Almost 40 years later moms daughter, Teresa, sought out her mom. This is when my mom told me I had a half sister. Mom was excited to have Teresa in her life again. Mom and dad got back together in early 1963. I was born in September of 1964. My childhood was difficult. We moved every 9 to 12 months, from city to city, looking for work, getting away from burned bridges, never settling. This was quite difficult on mom. In 1976 we moved to the Sacramento area. When I was in highschool two years later I begged and pleaded that we would not have to move while I was in high school. My parents settled in Carmichael and we lived in the same duplex for 4 years. Within the eighties all three of us daughters married and moved on. Mom and dad stayed in the same area and live there to this day.

In 1994 mom, who had smoked 2 to 3 packs of cigarettes a day for approximately 40 years, had her first emphysema attack. She ended up in the hospital for a week and gave up smoking and drinking for good. It was at this time she started devoting herself to her Catholic faith and truly started a relationship with God. She told me many years after this time that she felt her eyes had been opened to the lie of a life she had been living. She said the week that she was in the hospital her “friends” from the bar never visited her, never called her, never asked about her. She was visited by Catholic friends and neighbors only. This greatly changed her life. She devoted her life to prayer and bible reading. Mom's hobbies were drawing, painting, crocheting, knitting and reading, of these she most enjoyed reading. She would go through 2-3 books a week. She also loved to watch mystery and police dramas on television. In 2002, her health took a turn for the worse. She needed to be on strong medication and wasn’t able to get around as much. She also couldn’t read as much, which greatly saddened her. Whenever possible she would go to the local Catholic Church. She would always call me afterward and tell me how much she enjoyed it. In April of 2007 she went to the hospital and was diagnosed with pneumonia. While in the hospital they took an X-Ray and found a spot on her right lung. It was a small spot a little bigger than the size of a dime. Over the next 3 months she was in and out of the hospital. On July 20th the hospital did more X-Rays. The spot on her right lung had grown to the size of a peach. They also discovered that her lungs had stopped working properly. The hospital would give her oxygen but her lungs could not expel the CO2 and the toxins were starting to poison her body. On Monday July 23rd I visited her and thought she was doing well. We had a wonderful talk. I prayed with her, she explained that she was tired of fighting illness. She just wanted to go home and be with her Father in Heaven. On Monday Margarita signed a do not resuscitate form. On Tuesday, July 24th I received a call from the hospital to return as soon as possible. She was going downhill quickly. I visited her in the morning and found she was in and out of consciousness she woke up enough to say “help me get home to my heavenly Father, I want to be in Jesus arms” I prayed for Jesus to comfort her. That afternoon Josh, Ashley and Scott were able to visit with her. She cried, they told her they loved her. She was happy. While reading the 23rd Psalm to her she started reciting it word for word back to us. It was beautiful. We would later discover that, Praise God, they had not given her any morphine that day, she was fully aware of her family being with her. On Wednesday, July 25th the hospital called and said they’d done all they could do for her and that they needed to move her to a comfort care, hospice unit. They moved her at 4pm to a hospice in Auburn. Ken and I went to see her and she seemed at peace. She was very happy to be in Auburn. I asked her if she was scared, she said no. I asked her if she was happy she said yes. We had a sweet peaceful visit for over an hour and then she fell asleep at 5:45 PM. The nurse said that she never woke from this sleep and at 9:30 PM we received the call that she was finally in our Saviors arms.

As a side note: On Tuesday July 24th her doctor told us it would take a while for Mom to pass on. He explained that when lungs start to fail it takes longer and can be somewhat painful. He said she would be with us for no less than 3 to 4 more weeks and quite possibly up to 3 months. This distressed me greatly and I put out a prayer for friends and family to pray that she would not suffer any longer and that she would go home to her Savior quickly. This is what God did, even though the doctor said it wasn’t possible. Praise God for His unconditional love and unending mercy. Mom is now home.

Mom's friends at the apartments had a wake for mom at their apartment building on Friday, July 27, 2007 for her neighbors andfriends. They lived at the Sheraton apartments for more than 20 years. Mom's final resting place is at the Auburn Cemetary.