Mom was born on a Tuesday in Hagatna Guam to Maria and Antonio. Her brothers Juan & Tomas and her sisters Brigida, Margaret and Anne welcomed her. Tragically, her mother died shortly after her birth. She was raised by her brothers and sisters (who she was completely and respectfully devoted to) and her maiden aunt.
Antonita grew up on the tiny island of Guam in the south Pacific. She, along with her sisters never learned how to swim! (because good girls didn’t go to the beach!) Mom was about 10 when the island was invaded and occupied by the Japanese during the war. She survived many hardships during that time. (hunger, fear, flying bullets and being a witness to the death of a young girl just yards away from her.)
When the war was over, she continued on with school and as she graduated from high school she was awarded a nursing scholarship in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She was very intelligent. She received her RN degree, met and married her husband Russell and had two children; Pete and Linda. About 8 years later she went back to Aberdeen to anesthesia school for 18 months; living in Aberdeen during the week and coming home on the weekends and earned her Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist degree. She was a female pioneer in this field of medicine in the 70’s and was highly respected and greatly loved by her colleagues and friends at every hospital she worked at. Mom lived in South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and eventually settled in Provo, Utah.
In 1990 she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and was a faithful member and continued to grow her deep testimony of our Savior. She loved to pray and believed in the power of donated tithing. She and her friend Collen were visiting teacher companions for 30 years. Antonita retired from IHC in 1994. During the next 30 years she survived multiple surgeries; knees, shoulder, back, kidney augmentation. She survived breast cancer when she was 75, had aortic valve replacement surgery when she was 85 and hip surgery at the age of 89.
Mom was a very kind, appreciative, loving, caring and giving woman. She loved her nieces and nephews and became the matriarch of her brothers and sisters’ children and would call them often to hear their voices and laugh with them. She had an uncanny historical family memory. You could give her any year and she could tell you who was born that year, if anyone got married or any other trivia. She loved watching football. She would get so excited jumping up and down and out of chairs and calling out the plays that she once broke a rocking chair in her excitement. Mom had a stenographer’s pad with every teams players listed along with their jersey numbers and positions they played. Her favorite teams while we lived in North Dakota were the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers. While in Utah she would bet with the doctors, choosing the underdog and…WIN; decline her winnings and then later took them after all.
We will ever miss and remember you mom and Auntie Ning, Nana, grandma Toni and friend with deep love, respect, devotion and appreciation; acknowledging your beautiful, loving spirit and your unwavering faith in God. With conviction we rejoice in the very grand reunion we believe in, with those who have gone before you; especially with the mother you were not able to know your whole life. We cannot fathom life without you, so please watch over us and even guide us until we meet again. We will miss your presence in our lives.
The family wishes to publicly thank the numerous staff at the Cedar City Hospital: those on the floor, in the ER and in the ICU for their care of our mom. We also want to thank the staff at Stonehenge; especially Meg B, Nicole D, and Kristine E. during the last two days of mom’s stay there.
Services for Antonita will be held on February 28, 2025 at 11:00 am at the Cedar Valley Funeral Chapel. Interment will be at the Mountain View Cemetery in Beaver, Utah. Under the direction of Cedar Valley Funeral & Cremation. To watch the live stream of the service and to leave condolences please go to cedarvalleyfuneral.com and select her memorial page.