Alice’s History
About Alice
Name: Alice (Crespin) Garcia
Age: Lived life well - 95
Birthday: April 17, 1914
Hometown: Las Vegas, New Mexico
Occupation: Seamstress
Husband: Robert Lee Garcia
Children:
Pauline Lopez
Filomena (Lawrence) Chavez
Prescilla (Harold) Wiley
Cecelia Garcia
Celina Benavidez
Grand Children:
Jeanette (Ronnie) Clanton
Roberta Lopez
Arthur (Deborah) Chavez
Robert Chavez
Keith Chavez
Rhonda Johnson
Lou Fresquez
Raymond Fresquez
Radonna Fresquez
Great Grand Children:
Dawnita Chavez
Adrian Chavez
Justin Chavez
Joshua Chavez
Dominique Chavez
Deanna Fresquez
Alexis Fresquez
Janell Fresquez
Michael Fresquez
Madeline Johnson
Tiana Fresquez
Zachery Fresquez
Great Great Grand Children: Savanna Chavez
Robert Justin Chavez
Jason Chavez
Alice’s favorites
Books: Enjoyed reading Reader’s Digest and Catholic Register on a daily basis. A favorite subject of hers was history
Writers: All
Food: Her own cooking
Music: Western and Mexican
![Sewing and Cooking with Her Heart and Soul

All that loved Alice knew that her passion in life was raising her family, sewing, sewing, cooking and sewing. She also enjoyed visiting with family and shopping at the second-hand store for fabric. She sewed many outfits for her daughters, other family members, clients and herself. Later in life she was famous for her handmade quilts, potholders and tortilla warmers.
Cooking was another one of her passions. Everyone loved everything she cooked. Video of her cooking will be posted at a later date.
Obituary
Alice C. Garcia, 95 (Seamstress). Born April 17, 1914 in Las Vegas, New Mexico to Francisco & Mariquita Crespin, Preceded in death by husband, Robert Lee Garcia, Survived by children, Pauline Lopez, Filomena (Lawrence) Chavez, Prescilla (Harold) Wiley, Cecelia Garcia and Honorable former State Representative HD#5 Celina Benavidez; 9 grandchildren; 12 great grandchildren; 3 great great-grandchildren; brothers and sisters. Viewing/ 3:30p.m. Rosary, 4p.m. Funeral Mass, 4:30p.m. all Saturday at Sacred Heart Church. Reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Florence Crittenton School, Denver, CO. Up to date information at www.alicegarcia.com
At the Services:
Eulogy Given by Cecelia Garcia:
[To be Posted]
Thoughts Given by Rhonda Johnson:
Please raise your hand if Grandma has ever made you a quit, pot holder, or tortilla warmer. That's her way of spreading her love.
The Things Our Grandmother Gave Us:
1. To love and cherish family and we are family.
2. A faith in god to share with others.
3. How to see good in everything and everyone.
4. How to be strong and self sufficient.
5. To try and except everyone own uniqueness.
6. Self worth, compassion, honesty, and patience
Thoughts Given by Roberta Lopez:
My grandmother, such an honored and respected woman of great strength. She was our matriarch, our family royalty. She raised five daughters to be as strong as she was. My grand mother was the oldest of all of her siblings, her oldest child is my mom and I got lucky by being my mom’s second child. Jeanette is my big sister. We were all expected to grow up to be as strong as my grandmother. When my sister and I were very little, my mom, sister and I lived with my grandmother for a short period of time when grandma lived on Humboldt street. From Humboldt street my grandmother accomplished a major move by purchasing a home on her own at 1715 s Clarkson. That moved changed all of our lives forever.
I’ll never forget helping her move in, I was about 10 years old, and I remember thinking that my grandmother was so rich to be able to buy that house. Someday I wanted to be able to buy a house on my own. Over the years we had many Christmas and Easter breakfasts at her house. Her house was the hub of our family. If you wanted to leave a message or item for someone, we did so at grandma’s house. We would tape the message to grandma’s mirror or leave the item on her buffet. You could say that my grandma’s house was our family’s email/internet/ebay. My aunt Filomena and uncle Lawrence also moved to a duplex in South Denver and my mom soon moved my sister and I to the other side of that duplex. Not long after that we all followed the twins to South high school. Since then many other relatives have attended South High School.
My grandma was and still is a very strong role model to me. She did everything the right way. If it wasn’t the hard way or long way it probably wasn’t the right way. I have since been able to gain some balance in that area but it was a good foundation to start from. My grandmother was a woman of quality she had a standard of excellence. Cheap and fake did not work for her. My mom passed that trait on to me and my sister. We all grew up with high expectations, but we (meaning the grandchildren) were never punished if we did something wrong. I can’t say the same for her daughters when they made mistakes but my grandmother had different rules when it came to her grandchildren. I remember one day, I was about 18 years old it was snowing so hard and I was waiting for the bus but the bus never came. We didn’t have cell phones in those days so I couldn’t call anyone. I was so mad and cold I just stuck out my thumb to hitchhike. I hopped in the first car that stopped. I was surprised that anyone could even see me it was snowing to hard. I looked at the driver to thank them for stopping and was shocked to see that the driver was my grandma. She acted like she had been sent to pick me up. I guess she somehow knew I needed her help. When I set down in her car I just said “hi, grandma.” She never got mad at me or said anything to me about it.
I had my share of illness as a child and my grand mother and great grand parents (Mariquita and Francisco Crespin) were always there to help my mom if she needed it. My grandma helped me when I was sick even when I was an adult. About 10 years ago when I moved back to Denver from California I was not doing so well. I stayed with my mom at night and grandmother during the day and would cry in my grandma’s lap. She would touch my hair, cry with me and encouraged me that this would all pass. She was right, it did pass.
My grandmother also taught me how to sew clothing. We started out working on less difficult “Simplicity” patterns and gradually she moved me up to “Vogue” patterns. Vogue patterns were the most difficult. Not long after that, in junior high school I joined a drill team and we were required to sew our uniforms. It was a Vogue pattern. I still couldn’t quite sew it all on my own so my grandmother helped me and of course my outfit came out the best. It was professionally sewn.
I also loved my grandma’s cooking. Who didn’t. I always wanted to learn how to make her chicken soup. One day she agreed to teach me. That was one of the highlights of my life. She always cooked from scratch (except for her famous pound cake). What she cooked as was pure food. I am so happy now to always have my grandma’s chicken soup in my freezer. (yes, she also taught me to freeze everything) She didn’t tell me this but her soup is magical. If you eat it when you don’t feel well, it will knock you out for about an hour and you feel so much better when you wake up. If you eat it when you feel well it just tastes good and is good for you.
In May of 1997 I had an opportunity to interview my grandma. She talked about many things. She talked about my mom’s wedding and how she and grandpa Robert wanted the best for my mom’s special day. They wanted to serve the freshest chicken so they hired a man to slaughter the chicken. On the day of the wedding they got married had the dinner and dance and there were so many people they danced through the night and into the next day. Grandma even served breakfast the next morning. On a separate topic, I asked her how she would want to be remembered. Please listen to her response:
[Audio to be posted]
For those of you who could not hear her message, she said that she wants to be remembers for attending to the children, that she was able to keep up her end of the bargain and take care of her daughters. She knew that they didn’t belong to her, they belonged to God and he loaned her daughters to her to see what she could do with them. All of the children belong to God. It wasn’t hard for her, she always wanted her girls, she did not want to part with them.
Grandma, I love you so much. I miss you so much. It hurts to be away from you. I guess it must have also hurt you all these years to be away from your grandma. So, now its your turn, now you can spend time again with your grandma. I Love you.](About%20Alice_files/shapeimage_3.png)
