Community Remembers Blanca Torres

Posted on Aug 15, 2010 | Comments Off

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

KENNEWICK — Albert Torres called his sons up to the stage at his wife’s memorial service Friday evening.

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.

At the memorial service, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.; Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna; and Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle, spoke. Jaci Velasquez, a Christian pop singer who has sold 4 million albums, was among the singers.

Mariachi La Estrella de Mexico played love songs after Albert described the six years he spent convincing Blanca to marry him and the 19 years of marriage they shared.

Joseph Castleberry, the president of Northwest University in Kirkland, translated.

“When have you seen a Mexican speaking English and an Anglo translating in Spanish?” Albert asked.

It was important to Blanca to bring the two cultures of the Tri-Cities together, and just as important to change the image Hispanics have of themselves, Albert said.

She would tell the high school students who modeled at the expos she organized: “Never apologize for what you are, but stay focused on what you want to be,” said Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle.

“She was bright, smart, a great businesswoman and had a sense of humor,” Kenney said.

She understood the value of education and that it can forever change lives, said Vicky Carwein, chancellor of Washington State University Tri-Cities. Blanca went to Northwest University for just a year before she ran out of money.

To make sure other students don’t have to leave school early, scholarships have been established in her name at both universities.

Many may not have heard the story of the last few weeks of her life, Albert said.

She had been having trouble with her eyesight recently. Glasses and a new computer screen didn’t help.

“Your eyes are perfect,” said the next doctor she saw.

But that was not good news, Albert said. The doctor recommended she get a magnetic resonance image, or MRI, at the hospital to see what was going on in her brain.

When the results came back, she immediately was flown to Seattle with a confused Albert.

“We did not understand the danger we were in,” Albert said, even though doctors told them she had the largest aneurysm they ever had seen.

She spent 10 days in the intensive care unit, doing something the staff there may never have seen.

“Who wakes up every morning in ICU and puts on makeup?” Albert said. “It was as if she could stare death in the face and say, ‘I may die, but I’m going to look good doing it.’ ”

Surgeons were able to take an artery from her arm and bypass the aneurysm in her brain, but during the 10-hour operation, the aneurysm ruptured.

She was afraid she would survive the brain surgery without her memories intact, but she didn’t fear death because of her faith in God, Albert said.

At her graveside at noon today, those who come to remember Blanca will see something unique, he said.

He has hired a plane to fly over the Tri-Cities with a banner that reads “My Redeemer Lives.”

He doesn’t want people looking down at her casket, but up at the heavens, he said.

Her funeral, which is open to the public, is at 10 a.m. today at Faith Assembly Christian Center, 7213 W. Court St., Pasco. Graveside services will follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Richland, and then a gathering will be held at the church in Pasco.

Donations may be made to the Blanca Torres Scholarship Fund at Washington State University Foundation/WSU Tri-Cities, Attention: Sharon Holden, 2710 University Drive, East 237, Richland, WA 99352.

Or they may be made to the Blanca Torres Scholarship Memorial Fund at Northwest University. Checks may be sent to Joni Campbell, Northwest University, P.O. Box 579, Kirkland, WA 98083.

– Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com