Nyssa High School

Teresa Elguezabal

My sister Marie kept our family laughing, sometimes with only an exaggerated gesture or facial expression. One time when I was coming to Nyssa for a family visit from Madison, Wisconsin, she met me at the Boise airport dressed in a clown costume, complete with big red nose and a fluffy wig. It wasn't Halloween, not even October. There was no rhyme or reason to why she picked that particular day. "Just thought you'd get a kick out of it," she said.

She became the family organizer of parties and family events, inventing twelve new holidays, "the monthly birthdays." With so many of us (10 children and mami and papi and many of us kids --not me--were quite prolific, too) it would have been too many parties to celebrate everyone's birthday separately. So Marie came up with the idea of one birthday party per month and we'd celebrate everyone who had a birthday that month. Hence, "the April birthdays or the June birthdays."

Marie had the kindest and most generous heart. She was a friend to the friendless. Be honest now, we all know there were kids in school that the rest of us ignored or mercilessly teased, even bullied. Marie was their friend. One day when she was taking her daughters to a matinee movie in Ontario, there were three Mexican children ahead in line getting tickets. Marie overheard the ticket seller explain they didn't have quite enough money. Humiliated and disappointed, the children turned to leave. Marie huddled them and bought their tickets. What irritated Marie the most was that "It would have been so easy for the ticket seller to let them in and say, 'You can pay us the rest another day.' But no, she turned those kids away." There are many, many, many examples of Marie stepping up to the plate like that. (The baseball metaphor is for my brother Juan, but that's another story.)

Since Marie is not alive to update you about her family, I'll do it for her. Marie and her husband Jesse Price had two girls, Wendy and Lisa. Both were still in school when Marie died of breast cancer. Wendy is married and lives in Portland where she works for Starbucks. That girl was the first vegetarian I ever knew. She was a vegan even before it was trendy. Lisa lives in Ontario with her son Caleb. She works in retail and is working on her nursing degree from Boise State. I'm very proud of her as it is difficult to work, attend college, and parent at the same time.

I miss Marie, my brother Juan, and my mother. Like Ron Strasser, I, too, look forward to the visits at the reunion. I urge everyone to attend for no other reason than because we can. We don't know when we'll be gone. Teresa Elguezabal

Dana Ure Gross

I am so sorry for you and your family's loss. I know that life goes on but sometimes it seems hard to get it going again.