Evelia B. Rubio, 54, Colton

In early April, Evelia Rubio had a special request for her daughter. Reche Canyon Regional Rehabilitation Center in Colton, where Rubio lived, was short on personal protective equipment for its staff, and Rubio wanted to help.

She asked her daughter, Laura Garcia, to take $200 out of her bank account to pay someone to make cloth masks for the staff.

“She was loving and caring. She always wanted to help somebody,” Garcia said.

But just a week later, Rubio began to feel sick. Even over their daily video chats, Garcia said, her mother seemed sleepy and out of breath. On April 15, Rubio tested positive for COVID-19 — part of a cluster of 45 cases at Reche Canyon Rehab — and was hospitalized.

Doctors treated her for a week, and her breathing began to stabilize. But then her blood began clotting — hospital staff found clots in the dialysis machine and in the port they had installed to monitor her blood pressure. On April 22, Rubio died of COVID-19 complications. She was 54.

“She had made peace here on Earth,” Garcia said. “The only reason she was pushing was pretty much for my kids and me.”

Rubio loved to spend time with family. Before moving to Reche Canyon Rehab she lived with her older sister, and the two would plot massive meals for family gatherings. She rarely measured out ingredients and preferred to eyeball the ratios for tamales, potato salad and arroz con leche — everything with “a touch of love,” said Garcia.

Her care extended especially to her dog, Louie, a slightly sassy Shih Tzu that Garcia said was like her mother’s second child.

Rubio had a huge shoe collection as well, and especially prized her Doc Martens, Birkenstocks and Jordans. In the 1990s, she bought a new white Ford Thunderbird. She grabbed her nephew Pierre Fero — Garcia called her “the cool aunt” — and took off down the highway to show him how fast it could go.

Rubio moved to Reche Canyon Rehab after being diagnosed with severe kidney failure. Garcia said Rubio was expecting to be released soon and was just waiting for a surgical procedure that would make dialysis easier. She had to go through dialysis up to three times a week, and there were moments the stress on her body could be overwhelming.

But most days, you’d find Rubio in her natural state, making new friends, laughing and smiling.

Rubio is survived by her daughter, a grandchild, her mother, Sarisa, and six siblings.