Obituaries
Mercedes Solis, 1931-2011
Mercedes Solis lived in Imperial Beach since the city was established in 1956.
In 1983 doctors diagnosed Mecedes Solis with breast cancer. It would recede but for years some of her relatives didn’t even know she had cancer.
"My mom was the type of person that she would never want anybody to worry about her, to the point where I don't even think her own mother knew she had breast cancer."
“She didn’t want anybody to fuss over her. She was always thinking of other people before herself,” said her youngest son Jerry Solis. "That's pretty much who she was until the day she died."
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In July of this year, doctors again diagnosed Solis with cancer, except this time it was terminal, Jerry Solis said. Solis passed away on Aug. 16. She was 80-years-old.
“In 1983 she had breast cancer that she beat, and here we are in 2011. She survived another 30 years or so,” her son said.
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Solis was born on March 7, 1931 in Los Angeles, CA. She became a resident of Imperial Beach in 1956 when her husband was stationed at Naval Air Station North Island.
After moving to Imperial Beach, Mercedes found a career with the Department of Defense as a civil contract administrator at Naval Base Coronado, a job she held 30 years before retiring.
Solis spent part of her retirement traveling with her cousins to Europe, Alaska, Canada, and around the Mediterranean Sea.
She also volunteered her time at City Hall, where she would do clerical work. Solis did that for almost a year and stopped volunteering a year and a half before her death.
“She was active until the very end,” Jerry Solis said.
St. Charles Parish off Coronado in nearby San Diego was very important for Solis, and she would attend church there when she could until her health started to deteriorate. She even sent her children to the St. Charles Catholic School.
In 1966 Solis and her husband donated money to help build St. Charles Parish.
Solis met her husband Ralph Solis through a family member. The couple got married before divorcing 30 years ago.
Jerry Solis also said his mother did so much for him that when she became ill it was only right for him to take care of her.
“My mom gave birth to me and she helped raise me and towards the end when she was really sick I had to give back what she gave to me.”
She is survived by three sons Michael, David, Jerry, daughter-in-law Kelli Hopper and three grand children Joseph, Sarah and Ethan Solis.