Lydia Thompson, beloved wife, mother, and grandmother passed away peacefully at home on March 17, 2017, with her family by her side. Lydia, age 85, had struggled for years against illness, then God took her to Heaven.
She was born Lydia Gonzalez, and raised in the small Texas town of Hidalgo, on the banks of the Rio Grande, in the beautiful Lower Rio Grande Valley. Lydia’s parents spoke mainly Spanish, but Lydia, her four sisters, and her brother
speak both Spanish and English fluently.
Lydia graduated from high school in McAllen, Texas in 1950. Later, she traveled to Chicago, IL, where she worked as a secretary, then on to Miami, FL, where she worked as an airline stewardess for Pan American Airways, returned
to Texas and began working as a legal secretary in San Antonio. It was in San Antonio that she met Will Thompson, an officer in the U.S. Air Force. They were married on August 30, 1958.
Lydia and Will spent the first nine years of their married life as an Air Force family. Lydia became the mother of four children, Randy, Anita, Jessica, and John, during that time.
Will left the Air Force to work for Trans World Airlines in 1967 and was assigned to work out of Los Angeles. Lydia and he decided to make Ventura, CA their family home. They arrived in December, 1967.
Lydia enjoyed the stimulation and fun of comparing different languages. She loved words, especially words that were humorous or surprising. She had a shelf of books, mostly Spanish-English, dictionaries, foreign terms, modern usage,
synonyms and such, which she would often consult. Even as a child in Texas, Lydia would help anyone who needed something translated or interpreted, and developed great skill in doing so. Her expertise in interpreting Spanish to English led her to start her own professional interpreting service, “Lydia Gonzalez Thompson, Spanish Interpreter,” in Ventura in 1972. Lydia’s service was California Superior Court certified. Lydia was one of the first women in Ventura
County to be certified.
Lydia was a person who people immediately like as soon as they met her. She liked people and she showed it. She treated everyone she met with tolerance, respect, consideration, kindness, helpfulness, friendliness, and humor. Lydia
had a positive attitude towards life’s difficulties. She did not place blame. She did not gossip. She did not insult. She did not ridicule. She was discriminating, in that she would choose appropriate things over inappropriate, but she would never use unfair discrimination against anyone. She gave her children, and all children she met, the respect they deserved even as she might discipline them. Kids instinctively knew that her discipline was a form of love.
Lydia loved not only her own family, she had the deepest basic love for her parents’ family. She loved her sisters and brother as well as her parents. She loved her aunts, uncles, and cousins. The family of her childhood, and especially her
mother, was always on her mind as her dementia became worse during her illness. Lydia, during her final months, would say repeatedly that she wanted to be with her mother.
Lydia loves God. She is a devout Christian. She wanted to be in Heaven with her mother and her son Randy, who preceded her to Heaven. She said weakly before she passed away, “I’m going now.”
Lydia is survived by her husband, Will Thompson, of Ventura, CA; her children: Anita Thompson, of Ojai, CA, Jessica Thompson, of Ojai, CA, and John C. Thompson, M.D., Of San Diego, CA; her grandchildren: Sophia Cluff-Thompson, Lionel Thompson, and Roman Cluff-Thompson, all of Ojai, CA; her sisters: Tencha Segovia, Edinburg, TX, Oralia Araguz, San Antonio, TX, Yolanda Brittsan, Goose Creek, SC, Ana Barrera, El Paso, TX; her bother, Guadalupe Gonzalez, Austin,
TX; and many nieces and nephews.
A Most Holy Rosary will be recited in the JOSEPH P. REARDON FUNERAL HOME, 757 E. Main Street, Ventura, on Thursday, March 23, with prayers beginning at 6:00 p.m. Viewing of Casket will be available at 3:00 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial for Lydia will be celebrated in Sacred Heart Church in Ventura Friday, March 24 at 10:00 a.m., with 15 minutes of open casket viewing from 9:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.
In lieu of flowers to honor Lydia, please give to the American Cancer Society, The Alzheimer’s Assn., Ventura Friends of the Library, or Ventura Citizens for Hillside Preservation.