Dena Louise Connelly

64, Santa Monica

Dena Louise Connelly died the way she lived — as a fighter.

To her family, she was an honest woman with great integrity, a person who would tell it like it is and remain unafraid of hurting someone’s feelings. She was stubborn, yet nurturing. She cared about the things you cared about, but didn’t care what you thought about her. And most of all, she was “a tough little lady.”

Connelly, 64, died April 30 after battling COVID-19 for weeks.

Born in Washington, D.C., Connelly was orphaned as a child and shuffled through the foster care system. She moved to Los Angeles in her 20s and later gave birth to a daughter, Tatiana Molinar. While raising her daughter, she worked as a data entry clerk at a bank.

Connelly’s hobbies included gardening and reading mystery books. She was a fan of red nail polish.

Even as she grew older, Connelly tried to remain self-sufficient. She enrolled at Long Beach City College at 63 to pursue a degree in art, though the goal eluded her while she lived in an assisted living home for seniors.

Molinar said it’s unclear how her mother contracted the novel coronavirus. She suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that attacks the lungs, and had been hospitalized repeatedly over the years, her daughter said.

It started with a fever and a cough, and then worsened. Connelly sought treatment at a hospital and eventually was placed on a ventilator. For 30 days, healthcare workers tried to help her breathe on her own, but without success.

Molinar, who is a nurse at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica where her mother died, was able to say goodbye.

Unlike some of her patients’ families, who could only FaceTime loved ones, Molinar, dressed in protective gear, sat at her mother’s bedside and held her hand in the final moments.

“I told her she was strong,” Molinar said. “At least she was able to hear me say that.”

Connelly is survived by her daughter and two grandchildren, Sage and Lennox.