Albert Torres called his sons up to the stage at his wife's memorial service Friday evening.
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He wanted them to look down and remember the faces of the approximately 600 people who came to the service for Blanca Torres at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick.
"She loved many people and they loved her in return," he told Isaiah, 14, and Ezequiel, 11.
Blanca Torres, 39, died Aug. 6 in a Seattle hospital after a brain aneurysm ruptured.
She was the president and co-owner of EXPOnw, which organized events and conventions with a Latino focus. She also was the vice president of tu Decides, a statewide bilingual newspaper covering northwest issues in English and Spanish.
She and Albert worked in the asparagus fields of the Mid-Columbia many years as they grew up in the families of farm workers.
But she fell in love with Albert when he said he wanted to become president of the United States.
"I had never met anyone who dreamed that high," Blanca said in a recording played as dozens of images of her life flashed across tall screens. She was a chubby baby, a little girl always with one of her four sisters or her brother in childhood photos, then a bride in a voluminous white gown.
She did get to the White House with Albert as one of 20 people invited to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in 2006. They sat with the crown prince of Spain, Felipe de Borbon. When asparagus was served, the couple looked at each other and started to cry, Albert said.
"Can you imagine from where we came and then the things we experienced?" he asked.
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SOURCE: Bellingham Herald
Annette Cary
