Amelia Navarro, age 84 of Buena Park, California passed away into the caring hands of the Lord on Sunday February 25th, 2018 while surrounded by numerous loving family members. She was born in Wilmington, California on August 20th, 1933 to parents Ignacio and Consuelo Garibay as the 3rd of nine children of that notable family. She was the first sibling to be married, to one Jesús (Jess) Navarro on June 22, 1952 in Wilmington, California. Together they had 5 sons by 1962. During these years, that nucleus lived and argued and loved and grew as a family. Amelia served as the formidable matriarch of this family which has grown to 51 proud, successful Americans living and deceased. She walked in the light of Christ with unconditional caring love, truth (even if in the form of "tough love"), honor, respect, forgiveness and loyalty (serving as our "biggest fan") as simple guideposts. She provided a strong Mexican-American female example of love and strength long before formal advocacy groups to encourage women in this vein existed. Amelia was a daughter, sister, cousin, wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great grandmother, great-great grandmother and friend out of the sheer will power of her personal beliefs. Astute and wise, Amelia was always an independent thinker and doer. She passed this on to her many family members who generally eschew the follower mode and live in the leader mode, sometimes in the same outspoken way she occasionally exhibited. She worked in Office Management and in the State Employment Office, where others immediately entrusted her with jobs that were beyond her grade as they identified her innate "emotional intelligence" (well before that was a described capacity). Her situational intuition and keen sense of the moment were marveled and appreciated by all as those traits have "saved the day" for so many of us when we needed her the most, whether it meant being tender or strong without negativity. She also loved to dance like no one was watching, especially with many family members around her at weddings and special occasions. Preceded in death by her husband Jess (November 21, 2008), her parents and several siblings, she is survived by her sons and her 'daughters', their wives (Robert [married to Elizabeth], Edward [m. to Lee Ann], Steven [m. to Janis], Randolph [m. to Nadia] and Ronald [m. to Jennifer]), twenty grandchildren, seventeen great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. She was over the moon with pride at the fact that she and her husband came from humble roots and yielded so many loving family members with connections to business, education, law and medicine with numerous college and advanced degrees. Amelia's family will honor her by being committed to the same love, truth, honor, respect, forgiveness and loyalty in all they do. Visitation and burial services will be held at Forest Lawn Mortuary in Cypress on March 6th and 7th respectively, with a memorial funeral service to be held at Saint Pius V Catholic Church in Buena Park on March 7th. Contributions in the memory of Amelia Navarro can be made to the Gastric Cancer Foundation.
