The missing piece.

When you find it, events suddenly made sense. Or there is more confusion. Or sadness. But there is always closure.

My grandfather’s third sister, Guadalupe, had been lost to me (on paper) for years. I had no idea what happened to her after her “incident” with Moran and his kidnapping by my grandfather. The eighth of nine children, I have a feeling Lupe got lost in the shuffle of losing two parents so early in her life, while her older siblings were already “adulting” with their own families.

At the end of August, 2018, much of her mystery ended by my finding one website that gave me a link to archived newspapers. I found digital access to the Calexico Chronicle. And, woah! So. Much. Information!

My normal method to searching for my peeps is to put the names of every family member in the search engine to see what pops up. While it wasn’t a name, I did enter the address of Tia Guadalupe V. de Garcia: 910 East Third Street. It was a home base to many familial events. This one address gave me a huge assortment of information. But even better, it helped piece together important clues… because I never would have entered the name Mrs. Jay Holman.

One article led to the rest of the story.

After Lupe’s issues in 1927, she disappeared. She moved to Monterey and then on to San Francisco. She met a man who had recently relocated from San Diego. His name was Gerald Holman.

They found a bit of happiness and decide to get married.

How much he really knew about her, I’m not sure. There was a bunch of conflicting information running around the articles. From what I can tell, she called him Jay Holman. It’s not a typical nickname for Gerald, but not impossible.

They married in Reno, Nevada. They lived in a little apartment in the Hotel St. Clair in San Francisco. While I couldn’t find a photo of this particular hotel, I did find a wonderful article with photos of the historical hotels in the area at the time (now the Tenderloin District). It gives a great feel for the area in which the Holman’s’ lived.

The Tenderloin

In August, 1934, the newlywed couple had a fight. Lupe must have had deeply hurt feelings, because she took some drastic measures.

Tuesday, August 14, Lupe ingested a toxic substance. She suffered for 5 more days, before passing on my grandfather’s birthday, August 20, 1934.

So much of the information here is confused. She wasn’t born in Mexico City, nor her parents, and how much time she lived in the United States was wrong too, as she was born in Ventura County, CA. She very well could have “reinvented” herself for her new life with her husband. Maybe he would have learned more about her if their life together had continued.  The article above stated her husband’s name was Walter. As the addresses match, I chalk this error up to bad reporting. The Death Certificate had a second page which gave the actual cause of death.

By this time, the family was notified about the sad ending. She was sent home to Calexico.

Remember that Mrs. Manuel Garcia was Rufina’s sister, and therefore, Lupe’s aunt. And namesake too. The Garcia’s very kindly took the burden of the funeral from Lupe’s siblings. [If anyone can give me contact information to this branch of the Garcia family, I would greatly appreciate it. How can our families have been so close and yet had a breach so deep that we lost touch in the same town? Sigh.]

While Lupe was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery, she was nowhere to be “found” the multiple times I’ve been there. I had been told that Hems Brothers Mortuary has control over the cemetery. I have asked them repeatedly via letter to help me find those family members without headstones. To no avail.

While there is no marker for Lupe, we now know her earthly remains have been in Calexico this whole time. We know she had been in San Francisco. She had been living a life away from her family and her past, but one of lovely independence; a life with love and, for better or worse, one of great passion and emotion.