Raul and Adeline Miramontes

90 and 83, San Jose

When Raul Miramontes and Adeline Lopez met, they were both working in the fields of the Central Valley. Raul was a truck driver, while Adeline picked crops. The two married and moved to San Jose, where they settled and raised their family.

“They were real cute,” their daughter Michelle Miramontes- Medina said. “He’d always crack silly jokes at my mom.”

Longtime residents of the Seven Trees neighborhood of south San Jose, Raul and Adeline Miramontes died of COVID- 19 complications April 27 and June 21, respectively. He was 90 and she was 83. They were married for 61 years.

On a typical Sunday, Raul would be at “la pulga, the Berryessa Flea Market in San Jose. He’d sometimes repair bikes and wagons or build things to sell.

“He’d always take neighborhood kids to help them make some money,” Michelle said.

Raul started his own gardening company, which he ran for more than 30 years. Adeline dedicated her time to raising their three children, but also offered a hand to a local bank teller, babysitting her two children while the teller worked.

At family gatherings, Adeline would bring her specialty Spanish rice and Raul would bring the tunes. He loved playing the corridos of Los Tigres del Norte, the iconic norteño band.

Michelle remembers going on twoweek vacations every year to Disneyland or the San Diego Zoo or Mexicali, in Baja California. She said those trips were some of her best memories.

Raul and Adeline lived with their daughter Norma, who died of COVID- 19 complications May 3. Raul tested positive for the virus on April 25 and was diagnosed with pneumonia. He died two days later.

After first testing negative for the coronavirus and later positive for antibodies, Adeline was taken to Visalia to stay with Michelle following Norma’s death. She showed no symptoms at first.

“We thought she was going to be OK,” Michelle said. Then, on May 21, she started having trouble breathing. She tested positive two days later and was intubated. She spent a month at Kaweah Delta Medical Center, where she died June 21.

Raul and Adeline are survived by their children, Michelle and Carolyne; five of Raul’s siblings; six of Adeline’s; nine grandchildren; and 13 great- grandchildren.