Jeanette Marie Alimia

We gather to celebrate our mom's life and to mourn her passing. She fought hard for years with a terminal illness, and now she is finally out of pain. While I miss her very much, the knowledge that she is no longer suffering is what has kept my spirits lifted in these early days since her passing. This eulogy is supposed to offer a way to understand my mom during her life. The words here could never truly show or explain who she was, but I will do my best.

My mom was one of the most unique and strongly willed people I have ever known. After she divorced and moved herself and my brother Jay to Albuquerque from Louisiana, nothing she did was ever because she was expected to. She became her own boss in practically every facet of her life and no one could tell her what to do ever again. That strength resonated with me early on. Her indomitable will was her safety and her North Star as she labored to craft a decent life for my brother and I, becoming an independent business woman doing what she loved - cleaning houses.

To my mom, cleaning house wasn't just about making a house look nice, it was about making a house feel like a home. A place in which to feel comfortable after a long day of work. A place to relax with family and those we hold dear. To say she was a pro would be an understatement. She was a master of her craft. She had many other passions. She liked to bake, eat seafood as often as she could, watch Saint's games, tend her roses, and house plants, she liked to watch horror films, collect Stephen King books and keep a meticulously clean house, but those things don't come close to encapsulating our mom. Her sense of hard work, perseverance, determination and survival weren't just simple traits she brought to the table. Our mom fully embodied these qualities through and through - more than any hobby or passion she ever had. She could turn from a sweet, caring person into a I Oft Grizzly bear if she felt her kids or herself were threatened in any way. But she only did that to protect what was hers, to protect the few people and things she valued more than anything on this earth, and when you saw her 1 Oft Grizzly bear come out, you knew she meant business and was not to be trifled with. I will forever do my utmost to keep and honor that strength which was just so natural in her.