Superior, Arizona

 

Aerial picture looking southwest toward Picket Post Mountain.

Juan Garrido, a Spanish Conquistador in 1532, near Superior.

Looking northeast with Superior High School top center where my mom and dad met and later married. Queen Creek is in foreground and when I was still in single digits, I went up and down this creek looking for tadpoles.

Coming into Superior driving East with Apache Leap dominating Superior landscape.

This was thee building in Superior, the Magma Hotel. In the corner adjacent to the stop sign was the one of two drug stores in Superior.

One of the saddest days I vividly remember was in 1971. The Magma Copper Company smelter closed laying off hundreds of Superior workers. The smelter was a blocks away from where I was born and grew up. We lived on Porphyry Street and my grandparents lived on Pinal Avenue. The smelter is where my dad had his first job.

Growing up in Superior included discovery all around Superior. There were numerous places to find water and each became a "swimming hole." The one I remember most was on the road to Globe on Highway 60 driving east just before the Oak Flat Campground on the left side. A few miles east was Devil's Canyon where this picture was taken.

  

 

The old Uptown movie theatre where 25¢ bought a ticket, coke and popcorn.

One great grandmother, one grandmother, two grandfathers are interned in Fairview Cemetery in Superior, Arizona. This is where I choose to be interred someday.

On my tombstone:

 

Jon Dennis Garrido

 

January 14, 1943 —

 

Great Great Grandson of Andrea

Great Grandson of Anita Ledesma

Great Grandson of Maria and Antonio Alvarez Gonzales

Grandson of Maclovia and Francisco Alvarez Gonzales

Grandson of Juan and Carmen Garrido

Son of Carmen and Alex Garrido

Father of Jon Jason Garrido

Grandfather of Hunter Jay, Gabriella, and Sydney Garrido

"I did all things through Jesus and the Spirit of Christ who was my Guide.

 

The dove with one wing flies. How?

Because the dove believes it can. Such is the power of faith.

Holy Spirit, I had only one very broken wing.

You gave me the gift of faith to fly.

Faith and confidence are one and the same.

 

"Visualization by faith makes visible the invisible." Hebrews 11:1-3

 

"Give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong."

1 Kings 3:7-14, King Solomon's Prayer

 

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;

blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21

The most precious human gift given to me was

 

LIFE

 

by my most loving Mother and Father who had the greatest positive influence on my life.

I am my Mother's and Father's son.

It is my Mom and Dad to whom my life is indebted.

The second most precious gift given to me was my son: Jon Jason Garrido. He was always present in my heart.

He was my greatest contribution to God: I gave him life.

I did not pick the day of his birth.

Jon Jason Garrido was born on December 12, 1976, the Feast Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

On that December 12, 1976, morning as I drove to the hospital in Tucson, we came down to Tucson from our home in the foothills and to my right as I drove through a dry creek bed, I saw a beautiful buck deer. It was the only buck deer I ever saw in those hills. I knew immediately the buck was a sign from the Spirit but I did not know the significance until 8 p.m. that evening when Jon Jason Garrido took his first breath of life.

The third most precious gift given to me were my grandparents, Maclovia and Francisco A. Gonzales,

who were most loving caring grandparents to me.

The fourth most precious gift given to me was my childhood in Superior.

The fifth most precious human gift given to me was from my Mom who promised me in Jesus, Infant Child of Prague,

prosperity and success would be my life companions.

 

I take these memories to my grave.

 

What man is a man who does not make the world better? — 'The Kingdom of Heaven'

Holiness is in right action. — 'The Kingdom of Heaven'

 

Written May 9, 2008

Updated March 4, 2009

Updated September 1, 2009

 

Jon Garrido