Fort Bend couple who died just days apart are remembered as ‘angels’
PAT GUZMAN AND AIDA GUZMAN
Pat and Aida Guzman were neighbors you could count on. Sonia Gallardo Moran, who used to live across the street from the couple in Fort Bend County, said the Guzmans became like second parents to her and grandparents to her two sons, Diego and Danny.
Aida babysat the boys, and when the couple moved to another neighborhood, they set up a room for Danny. The two families came together for holidays, Christmas Eve Mass and Halloween parades.
Earlier this spring, Pat and Aida became sick with the new coronavirus. They passed away eight days apart.
“You know how much I love you,” Moran, 40, recalled telling Pat over the phone before he died. “All these years that we’ve been knowing each other, you’ve been like a second father to me. … I really appreciate that every single day of my life.”
Pat, 76, and Aida, 77, both became sick after taking a trip to a supermarket in early March, according to Pat’s son, Ivan Guzman. Aida became ill first and died on March 25. Pat passed away April 2.
Ivan wasn’t able to be with them physically because of restrictions on visiting patients with the disease. He said it was difficult not being able to help out or hold their hands.
“That’s just the absolute worst part of all of it,” he said.
Born in 1943 in Brownsville, Pat served in the military before working for FedEx. Ivan described his dad as strict with him and his brother Joe, but said he also had a softer side.
He said his father accompanied a neighbor to put her dog down because she didn’t want to go alone. He also loved gardening and decorating their Missouri City home for the holidays.
Aida, also of Brownsville, was born in 1942 and was a classmate of Pat’s at Brownsville High School. She reconnected with him in the 1990s after the death of Pat’s first wife (Ivan’s birth mother) due to cancer.
Pat was Aida’s second marriage.
Ivan said Aida, who also had two sons, wasn’t as strict as his father and brought a new dynamic to their household.
One of Aida’s sons,
John Green, 56, described her as a caring person who loved celebrating the holidays. Aida spent most of her career in retail working at Palais Royale, he said. Green said that even though he and his brother, Kenneth, are both hearing-impaired, their mother “made sure we led normal lives.”
“She never gave up, neither did we,” he said.
The outgoing couple enjoyed hosting others at their home and inviting friends over on weekends. They belonged to Holy Family Catholic Church in Missouri City.
Their Missouri City neighborhood held a vigil in their honor.
Loved ones are holding close to an expression that Aida often used:
“The birds are still singing,” according to her obituary.
Said Moran, “They both were angels, two angels on earth.”