ILIANA NICHOLAS
SILVIA RAYMUNDO-LOPEZ
ELLIS & RACHEL WHITE
JUAN CUMBAL
MIGUEL GALEANA
NATASHA LUKAN
Super Mom
“Professor”
Though I don’t have a plethora of information about humble Silvia, I do know this. Born in Mexico, she spends six-plus days a week earning money to send home to her precious familia. And she takes amazing care of her daughter, Alejandra.
Though the personality trait that I most associate with Iliana Nicholas—teacher at Lighthouse Christian School—is her lilting laugh, her childhood story is anything but jolly.
When Raymundo-Lopez speaks about her teen, her bright, brown eyes sparkle with joy— especially when discussing classy Alejandra’s recent quinceañera. Though another Gig Harbor mother equally cherishes her children—she’s new to parenting.
Nicholas recalls the way her mom wept while saying goodbye—perhaps forever—to relatives. The possibility of still “playing with cousins and the closeness of family and friends,” disappeared in the aircraft’s contrails.
Cordial Kiwi
“We left Cuba with only the clothes on our backs and the hope of freedom. We arrived in New York on a chilly February evening in 1973.”
Natasha Lukan lived in Australia. Despite the warm surf of the Gold Coast, something was missing—her future husband. Thankfully, she met Troi Cockayne online.
Ensuing years saw Iliana marry a kind man and raise sweet children, while teaching a generation of students the beauty of her native language.
After a truly long-distance relationship, Lukan arrived in Washington through a fiancé visa. Two days after her flight touched down, wedding bells rang out.
If Nicholas’ tale made my heart thump with compassion, the final interviewee repeatedly made me pause in awe.
Mrs. Cockayne happily asserts, “I am now stepmother to three beautiful children and wife to the most amazing man of God and gifted sculptor.” (www.kingsgallery.net) While Natasha formerly taught piano, her fellow Harborite instructs full-time.
Running Man Most locals know Miguel Galeana and his bride, Alexa, from their stellar running store or their helpful work with athletes of all ages, (www.route16runwalk.com). Fit and compact, Galena recounts, “In the late 1970s my father traveled [to America] via the
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desert plains. My mother left a year later. She was the only female amongst many men and had the terrible task of inching, underground, through a half-mile of filthy, rat-infested waters. That tunnel got smaller as she wriggled further into it. My mother still speaks about how thinking about us children kept her going. I am very fond of my mother.” While his mom and dad prepared a new life in the Northwest, grandparents looked after their grandchildren—Miguel, José, Mari and Luis—in Mexico. One day, friends escorted the youngsters to the border. Soft-spoken Galeana continues the tale: “I vividly remember… getting stuck on barb wire while crossing the fence… [the] back of my shirt got caught so I dangled until someone freed me. We had no understanding of English.” Upon reaching Washington, Miquel recounts “I remember hugging my [parents]. My little brother cried out for mom [because he] didn’t recognize her. It was an adventure learning how to become Americans.” Norwegians, Swedes, Croatians and Finns, British, Australians, Ecuadorians, Mexicans and many others. We are all immigrants. We are Gig Harbor.