Rosa Maria Miller de Vega

Rosa Maria was born in Mexico City, Mexico on September 6, 1935 to Alberto Miller and Carmen Artalejo. She was the baby of four siblings Alberto, Sylvia and Blanca and later big sister to half-brother Felix Miller. She attended school early – at 3 yrs old. Before and after whatever classes there were for the little ones and while her sister was in classes, she was under the care of an Order of German nuns that ran the school. You could say she became the mascot. Rosa Maria attended high school at the British all-girl’s Academia Maddox. Here she met her life-long friend Irma Botas, with whom she talked with to this day. To hear them together, you might call them “partners in crime”! Rosa Maria learned English early, and it was reinforced while in school there. She earned a college equivalent diploma in secretarial skills when she graduated in [1952]. Rosa Maria enjoyed her teen years tremendously in Mexico City with parties, celebrations, “pretendientes” (suitors) and travels to Veracruz, Acapulco, Puebla and more of her beloved Mexico. After her mother moved to the USA in the 50’s, RM decided to join her at the age of 18 – moving to Imperial Beach, CA (adjacent to San Diego). Through her mother’s matchmaking, Rosa Maria was introduced to firefighter Louie Vega, whom she married at the age of 19. Though not raised with homemaking or cooking in mind, RM met the challenge with making a new house into a home with Louie and soon. daughter Lorraine. Two years later, Sylvia was born. Rosa Maria raised the girls and kept her first house while having hardly any close family or friends nearby – her mother having moved farther north in California. After a move into a bigger home, seven years later, son Carlos was born and Rosa Maria was by then a self-taught pro in sewing, cooking, and party-planner extraordinaire! Besides the necessities, she also picked up pencil and brush and over the years painted many of the beautiful paintings hanging in her house and others’. She passed on these talents to her children, Lorraine and Carlos who are wonderful artists in their own right. She took advantage of Louie’s city employee passes to most of Balboa Park by taking her children quite often to all the art and cultural museums she could. The natural history ones were the Dad’s department! Rosa Maria extended her talents not just to works of art, but also to home improvement before DIY was in fashion. She refinished the knotty pine kitchen cabinets along with the kitchen table and chairs we still use today. She was fearless, always bucking the norm by painting the brick fireplace white and crafting a mosaic rug for son Carlos’ room with carpet remnants. She mastered stretching a buck and the family income, her children always believing they lived like kings and queens. When re-entering the workplace in the mid-60’s, Rosa Maria worked for a short time for the United Nations in San Diego as a translator. Later she worked for the renowned Berlitz School of Languages as a Spanish Instructor. She taught Spanish to many of the CEO’s in San Diego’s business world. The students that would lead her to her next phase of life were the priests and seminarians of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego. With the Mexican-American and Chicano culture and interests spreading through the region, Rosa Maria played a great part in assisting the religious with the skills to serve the Spanish-speaking parishioners of San Diego. Most of the young priests of that era learned their Spanish from Rosa Maria. Her unique style of making learning into games and giving everyone new identities, made this a very successful time. Fr. Bill Springer whom is performing her funeral mass was one of her students, and still considers himself a Spanish-speaker. Through the success with her teaching, in the mid-70’s Rosa Maria was enlisted by Catholic Community Services to join the Padre Hidalgo Center where she met two other life-long and cherished friends, Sr. Sara Murrieta and Enrique Mendez. Sr. Sara (“Sarita”) and ROSA MARIA had a wonderful visit just the day before she passed away. Here, RMM used her varied talents in a variety of roles from creating programs for Chicano women in Logan Heights to a lay role on the National Catholic Conference of Bishops. Coincidentally the Padre Hidalgo Center was right next to the first little house in Logan Heights where she started her married life. In 1971, the family moved to a new house in Tierrasanta – to the very first block of people to move in to the now-expansive development in San Diego. Soon her daughters Lorraine and Sylvia were scattering throughout the country – Lorraine to Connecticut and Sylvia to various cities in California. Lorraine would return to California with a law degree and Sylvia would leave for Edmonton, AB to raise a family. Carlos would bring up the rear with college in Indiana, and eventually New Jersey with Continental Airlines. The latter was one of the primary reasons Rosa Maria and Louie could start travelling throughout the country and the world. Visiting her children and new grandchildren being the next best reason. Rosa Maria made many trips through Europe, the U.S. including several to Hawaii, often with Carlos and his new wife Cindy. She still made almost yearly trips to Mexico City to visit with her two brothers and other family. She even had the misfortune of being there for the major earthquake in Sept. 1985. Besides visiting, her trips always included some excursion with Alberto and family or Felix and his, to various fascinating destinations near Mexico City. Lorraine and her husband Patrick and Carlos and his wife Cindy were also able to share those trips over the years. When her time at Padre Hidalgo ended, Rosa Maria started her own consulting business, The Language and Cultural Experience. She would once again perform her expert lessons in Spanish, translating or consulting on various situations in working with Mexico or Mexicans in the US. Rosa Maria was blessed with her three favorite people, her children. She was the original Tiger Mom, and no one in her presence was able to say a disparaging world about them – except herself, and then only with them directly. These were always laced with her famous advice, prescriptions and health tips, movie recommendations-you name it. Once retired, she spent copious hours taping TV shows or music albums to share with them. Each of them has a collection of cassette tapes with her perfect meticulous writing on the wrapper of each song, etc. Her travels took her to several trips to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to visit her new grandsons, Jacob and Julian Smith. And later to New Hampshire for her third grandson, Dalton Vega. She extended her advice and love to these three boys until she died – on their haircuts, beards, girlfriends and more. They all called her Grandmama – it suited here perfectly. Rosa Maria maintained a special relationship with Lorraine’s husband Patrick Flynn. He was the perfect sounding board and acceptor of her many thoughts on social issues and more. There are still some conspiratorial conversations many were never privy to! Rosa Maria spent many of the last 15-20 years living alone in the same house in Tierrasanta. She always said “I’m alone but not lonely!” She kept herself entertained with her new-found joy, the computer. She could play games, write and communicate with everyone. She also made many friends at one of her favorite places, Barona. Rosa Maria made friends with everyone from the housekeeping staff in the restrooms to the ownership team. It would not be unusual to have her calling the chef over in one of the restaurants to share her thoughts, even advice! She was treated like the “VIP” that she truly was. Even her devastating stroke in 2009 did not keep her from making trips there but this time with her new roommate and caregiver, her daughter Sylvia. Only in the last year did their visits er new roommate and caregiver, her daughter Sylvia. Only in the last year did their visits get cut back when her health made these excursions more difficult. Rosa Maria survived and was able to thrive to a certain extent at home for another 8 years, until her unexpected departure on July 9th. She spoke often of her death and her fearlessness was still always in evidence during those discussions. We’re sure she got a VIP welcome by those whom pre-deceased her – Louie, daughter-in-law Cindy Vega, sister Sylvia Navarro, brothers Alberto and Felix Miller and pet Dino. Celebration of Life will be on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at the San Diego Mission de Alcala at 10:00AM. A small reception will follow in La Sala room at the Mission. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Rosa Maria’s favorite charity St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital or Father Joe’s Villages.