Erica posted a condolence
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Herminia Rodriguez Galarza was born April 30, 1931 in Sierra Alta, Yauco, Puerto Rico. The first child to her father Victor, who was a farmer, and her mother Eligia, she was elder sister to 9 siblings, 5 who passed away in infancy. The surviving children are Adelio, Edith, Radames, and Gloria, whom she helped raise. Though she only went up to third grade, she was able to become a seamstress, making gloves at just 15 years of age.
In 1950 Herminia met Eloino Rosario in a catholic church in Duey, Yauco. Shortly after their brief meeting, Eloino moved to New York to study. A friend of Herminia's in New York told him to write to her and so they began correspondence until 1952 when he returned to Puerto Rico at her request. He visited her on a Wednesday at 2pm where he saw her milking a cow in front of her family's house. There he asked her father for permission to have a friendship with her. Within the year they were married in the same church where they met on the 14th of June, 1953.
Together they moved to Ponce where their first four children were born, Eloino "Junior", Lionel, Madeline, and Alben.
She worked at a shoe factory called La Paula. Soon the growing family moved to New York where they first lived on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx. In 1965, on Thanksgiving day Osiris, the fifth and final child, was born.
At first Herminia worked at a toy factory, then Celebrity factory, and later in the garment district for a designer where she sewed in shoulder pads.
She began driving in 1974. Her children remember watching her practice at La Playita.
"She passed [her road test] with flying colors" said Lionel, fondly remembering his mother's accomplishment.
Her children also fondly recall taking trips in her burgundy 1978 Chevy Impala or 1969 Thunderbird to places such as Niagara Falls, Washington D.C, Sunken Meadow, Floating Hospital, Bear Mountain, and Randall's Island to name a few. Cousins and family friends were always included. Herminia was all about family and keeping everyone connected. As her children grew older and began to marry and later divorce, she always made the effort to keep everyone united and traveled often to be closer to her grandchildren. Not only was she able to form close relationships with her grandchildren Lissette, Aileen, Valerie, Louie, Jacqui, Nelo, Erica, Elisa, and Elam, but she was also able to bond with her great grandchildren Anaiss, Jaysliann, Isis, and Alexandra.
Herminia was a strong matriarch and provider for her family. If anyone needed a place to stay, they only needed to ask and her door was open. She had taken in the girlfriends of her sons, helped them get an apartment and get settled. Took in her grandchildren when they needed more care than parents could provide, stayed at her children's homes to care for their children, cooking delicious meals.
She gave her all to caring for her family making sure everyone had enough food, shelter, clothing, and most importantly of all love, until she could no longer. A greatly beloved powerful force of a woman, she will be missed.