On the morning of Monday, September 9, 2019 - three days after her 85th birthday and her 61st wedding anniversary, Donna Villaflor Peczon passed away peacefully at the St. Joseph Health Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California. She was surrounded by her loving family that includes her beloved husband Jose, her two children Walter and Lisa, her five grandchildren Patrick, Michaela, Haley, Brianna, and Charlie, daughter-in-law Regina and son-in-law Omar.
Donna was born on September 6, 1934 in Kabankalan, a small town in the Island of Negros, Philippines and then grew up in the city of Bacolod, capital city of the Province of Negros Occidental. After completing elementary and high school education in her home city, she enrolled at the Siliman University in Dumaguete, completed one year of a college liberal arts course, then transferred to the School of Nursing at the University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital in Manila. She graduated in 1956 with a BSN degree. During her training as a student nurse, and later as a staff nurse in the neurosurgery operating room of the hospital, she met a young medical student whom she later married, Jose D. Peczon, MD, UPCM Class of 1957.
Together, Donna and Jose embarked upon a life journey that took them away from their homeland in the Philippines towards the land of greater opportunities in the United States. Donna supported Jose's early medical career that started in Chicago and then moved to Boston, and ultimately Greenfield, Massachusetts which were the golden years of their lives. It is in Greenfield where Donna and Jose were openly embraced by the community and where Jose's contributions to society through his medical skills were at his greatest. Donna raised her family knowing that Greenfield would always be their warmest home.
Later in life, Donna and Jose migrated to Dove Canyon in Southern California to seek a warmer climate and a closer proximity to their children and grandchildren. She spent many hours a day in her beautiful large garden, and many hours in her sewing workshop where she made and mended clothing, among other items, for her grandchildren and family.
Donna's remains will return to her home in Greenfield later this year. At her request for privacy, there will not be a funeral service. In order to commemorate Donna's life of compassion, a fund has been established for the orphaned children in the Philippines at the White Cross Orphanage. The fund can be found online at
GoFundMe.com.
Published by Recorder on Sep. 18, 2019.