Manuel "Manny" Heredia

Manuel Heredia was born on December 11th, 1932 in Tijuana, Mexico. His parents were Antonio Heredia-Imperial and Celia Calderon. His wife was Lucila Puentes-Melendrez and his children are Lucila, Alejandra, Elvia, Manuel Jr. and Claudia Heredia.

Manuel was one-of-a-kind. Loving. Funny. And he was a very hard-working man. The kind of man that never took no for an answer. He was loyal to his family and always took pride in loving his sisters and his brothers. He was honest and very blunt. He was kind, but he was also very stubborn. It had to be his way, or no way at all. He was strict and a straight to the point kind-of-guy. My grandpa was a very classy man - A true gentleman. He also had a heart of gold - The kind that everyone admired about him because although he was the life of the party, he also had this contagious energy to make everyone feel loved and welcomed. But the one thing that we all remember him by, was his love for baseball, his love for music, his love for books and for the way that he loved his wife, his children, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

As a father, my grandfather was the best Dad anyone could ever ask for. For his children, he would go above and beyond. He never missed their sport games, their school functions and whatever they wanted, he tried his best to get for them. For his son Manuel Jr., he was his everything. He was, the true definition, of the love of his life. He never missed his boxing events or his baseball games because to him, spending time with his son brought him extreme joy. For his daughters, he loved each one unconditionally and wholeheartedly. He was an affectionate Father to them. A no-nonsense kind of guy. Strict when he needed to be on them and when things needed to be done. His children were his life. He took his children everywhere. If they weren't watching Dodger games, they were out visiting family, having barbecues or going every weekend to eat at different restaurants. For Elvia, he made her box because his dream was to have a woman boxer in the family. For Alejandra, he made her enter beauty pageants and contests, in which she won two, because he wanted a little pageant queen. For Claudia, he made her sing and dance because he loved music so much he wanted a singer in the family. For Lucila, he made her learn how to the play the accordion, made her play every weekends with the family because he wanted someone in the family to play an instrument so badly. The first song she learned was "it's a small world," and with the magic of the universe, he's now going to be buried right by Walt Disney. My grandfather use to always say that raising his children was practice, but once he had grandchildren, he was an even better example of what unconditional love was.

As a grandfather, my grandpa was super loving, but the one thing we all remember him by was him always pranking us and laughing. He once told all of us that he was a dentist, and said he took all of my grandma's teeth out because he was tired of her talking. The funny thing about my grandpa was that every Christmas Eve, he'd only let us open one gift at midnight. After we'd opened that gift he'd say, "Okay! Ya vete pa tu casa. See you tomorrow!" And kick us out. Actually, he always kicked us out. His famous lines were, "Como enfadan." or "Ya dijen de hablar. No dejan dormir chingado." And if we came into his house without closing the door, he'd say "Ceran la pinche pureta." If we had barbecues, everybody had to clean because if we didn't, he'd say "tu madre nos es creada, ponganse a limpar." And if you knew how to drive, he'd make you take him to where he wanted to go. He'd say, "llevame a macy's a compar Levis." or "cuando vamos a ir a comprar discos" or "llavenme a compar el newspaper." And because he had so many grandkids, he always got our name wrong. We must of all been called, Alejandra. Or Lucila. Or Claudia or Elvia. Or Jr. Or "Tu, chingado, ven paca." when none of us are even named that. And once my grandpa got a cell phone, it was game over. He called everybody all the time even if he didn't know how to use the cell phone. He'd call Elvia looking for Claudia. Or Lucila looking for Alejandra and say, "ay no, me equivoque de numbero." If his tv wasn't working, he'd call you and say, "la pinche tele no functiona, cuando van a venir a reglar la." Or when our parents would leave us with my grandpa and my grandma would be working, he'd feed us ice cream for lunch. Candy for dinner. And let us watch scary movies. And if he picked you up from school, McDonald's was every Friday.

Today, each and everyone of his grandkids can say, that our grandpa was the greatest grandfather. If we were in High School, he never missed any of our games. He wore our school logo t-shirts, school sweaters and hats with pride. He'd lecture us, he'd guide us and he'd scold us when he felt he needed too. He'd always stress that going to school was very important. He was a very hands on and very involved grandpa. Always wanted to know our business and who we were dating - Even if we weren't dating. And if you were past 25, he'd say "y cuando te vas a casar." or if you were his grandson he'd say, "y cuántas novias tienes?" And we'd say, "Aye Grandpa. You're funny!" For Ava, he loved even more, knowing that that was his first great granddaughter. For Danna, you were loved by my grandfather.

For Frankie, Gabby, Hector, Mirella, Manuel, Steven, Liliana, Andrew, Mark, Amayda, Anthony, Clarissa, Adrian and Jessie - We are the grandchildren of Manuel Heredia.

As a husband, he loved my grandma unconditionally. And my grandma loved him even more. He would sing to her at random times songs like "usted" or "novia mía," dance with her when he wanted to be silly and constantly told her that he loved her. He'd say, "te quiero, mi vijeita." Because he did, to the very end. And we want to say thank you grandma for loving our grandpa, for taking care of him, and for completing your vows of till death do you part because he died in the most important persons arms, yours.

I also want to thank you grandpa. For loving each and everyone of us. For inspiring us. For guiding us. For making the sacrifices you had to give us everything. And for leaving a little bit of you in all of us. You really did love us all unconditionally.

Today, I want you all to know one thing; and it's that he is at peace now. There is no more suffering. No more agony, no more pain, and no more discomfort - There is only peace - and knowing that; our hearts are truly at peace with his passing.