CATHERINE TSUMA

Catherine Loraine “Cathy” Tsuma, 62, tranquilly left her suffering from Pancreatic Cancer April 18, 2018. Her sudden back pain June 17, 2017, led her to the Emergency Room and the discovery of the metastatic disease that gradually wore her body down. Despite months of medical treatment, she went to hospice care just three days before her passing. Cathy was born October 11, 1955, and spent her early years in Chimayo, New Mexico. She was a descendant of the Padrinos that cared for El Santuario de Chimayo, her third great-grandfather, Don Bernardo Abeyta, was the founder. Her grandparents, Manuel and Victoria Chavez, are buried in the courtyard of the Chapel and Cathy recalled selling fruit from the orchards to the faithful who would pilgrimage there. Her parents, Filaberto and Flora Chavez, moved to Los Angeles in 1962. Cathy’s father found employment with Northrop, an aerospace corporation, tragically he passed from the same disease three weeks before his 42nd birthday. In 1968, the family moved to Inglewood where Cathy graduated from Morningside High School in 1973 and attended classes at Pierce College. However, before getting her degree, she married and began her healthcare career working as a scheduler at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood. In 1980, she started in the front office as a receptionist, for Brandwein Medical which grew to become Lawndale Orthopedic Group. It was then that Cathy first met her amor, Wayne, and they wed October 10, 1985. She left that facility to work for Little Company of Mary Hospital Care Center in Torrance, as the medical billing supervisor. In 2000, with much anxiety, she left her family and two of her four children, and an established career behind to follow her husband, after two years of a long distance marriage, to Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, she re-established herself at Fremont Medical Group. She started out overseeing the Front office and eventually distinguished herself as the Medical Referral Supervisor for Healthcare Partners, Davita Medical Group. She was recently awarded the First Lifetime Appreciation Award for her dedication and achievements with the Referral Team, which had grown from several satellite offices to a centralized facility of 40 teammates. Cathy’s main activity was cultivating her teammates at Healthcare Partners. Her other loves were her family and husband. She enjoyed reading novels, traveling with family, going camping and watching the Dodgers play baseball. She was a huge Dodgers fan and she amassed a large collection of Dodger memorabilia and even drove a blue car with the license plate LUVDGRS. Cathy was able to cheer enthusiastically at game two of the 2017 World Series, a heartbreaking 11 inning loss. She believed the meaning of life was to live it, and one of the last things she said was not to take tomorrow for granted. Cathy was grieved to leave behind the love of her life, Wayne, whom she was married to for 32 amazing and adventurous years. The children she nourished and loved, Florcita Jewell, her husband, Dustin, Hernan Sanchez, his wife, Kriseyda, Yoshie Tsuma, and Casey Tsuma, his wife Rebekka. She also leaves her greatest joys, her beloved and cherished grandchildren, Shane Jewell, Kyara Sanchez, Dominic Sanchez, Ian Jewell and Tatiana Jewell. She will be missed by her mother, Flora Chavez (89); siblings, Grace Trujillo, her husband Eddie, Manuel Chavez, his wife, Rosa, Oliver Chavez, and his wife, Chris, and Pauline Chavez; nine nieces and nephews, one of which, Javier was her Godson a consummate Dodger fan. According to her wishes, she will be cremated and service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 19, at Palm Mortuary, 1600 S Jones Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89146. There will be a celebration of life afterwards at the recreation center at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2245 Lindell Road, Las Vegas, NV 89146. Condolences can be offered at www.palmsouthjones.com