Helen Chapa

With a heavy heart yet a spirit rich with affectionate memories, we announce the passage of Helen Cuellar Chapa into the immortal fields of rest. Born on December 20th, 1960, in the warm and welcoming town of Alvin, Texas, Helen's journey through this earthly realm concluded peacefully on October 21st, 2025, in the historic embrace of San Antonio, where the River Walk flows akin to the loving tales shared amongst kin.
The lineage of Fidelia C Chapa, a beacon of maternal strength, and Benito M Chapa, a patriarch of enduring courage, Helen was but a vibrant chapter in their legacy. The family tapestry, rich in color and character, saw siblings Roselinda and Aldaberto Martinez, Benito Jr. and Arlene Chapa, Mary C Chapa, Benjamin and Minerva Chapa, Beatrice C Chapa, and Chris C Chapa weave their own unique strands of love and experience alongside her. The echoes of laughter from nieces and nephews, Jennifer, Kelly, Felicia, Madison, Nicole, Minerva III, Brittany, Caydence, Audrey, Christina, Virgina, Alex, Austyn, Pj, Adolph, Benji, Teddy, Travis, Harrison, Jordan, and William, as well as their own brood of 13 great-nephews and 14 great-nieces, infused Helen's world with unfettered joy.
In her youth, Helen crossed the stage as a proud graduate of Edgewood Highschool's Class of '79, her future as finely stitched as the garments she would craft with grace at Levi Strauss, where she served loyally as a seamstress for 25 years. Just as her skillful hands transformed fabric into fashion, so too did her presence turn the ordinary into the memorable within her professional realm.
Our gentle yet formidable Helen loved the thrill of sports-football a gallant clash of warriors, basketball a symphony of agile poise, baseball a dance twixt pitch and swing, and the Olympics a spectacle of Earth's noblest contests. Recalling the echoes of her high school days, it is as though the swing of her tennis racket was a brush upon the canvas of her life, and her strides around the golf course were nothing less than an elegant serenade to the green. Her collection of sports cards and memorabilia are not mere objects, but relics of her passion, each carrying a story, a memory, a victory.
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." These words of wisdom, scribed by the immortal bard William Shakespeare, seem a fitting compass by which Helen navigated her days-loving, intelligent, and spirited-an exemplar of brilliance in both heart and mind. She moved in this world with a boundless energy that ignited inspiration in others, a beacon of what it means to be truly alive.
To echo the timeless voice of John Donne, "No man is an island," for Helen's essence was the very thread that connected the many islands of her beloved family and friends. Her absence is a palpable void, though we remain consoled by the everlasting imprint of her spirit upon each soul she touched. It is with the knowledge that Helen now dances in the realm of eternity, her laughter a sonnet, her legacy a timeless epic, that we bid farewell-not in sorrow, but in gratitude for the chapter she shared with us.
In the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Peace, peace! She is not dead, she doth not sleep-She hath awakened from the dream of life." We now entrust our beloved Helen unto the vastness of infinity, her journey continuing beyond the horizon where the sonnets of angels are sung, and the fields of Elysium sprawl ever verdant.
May the tale of Helen Cuellar Chapa be regaled in the halls of memory, rich with the mirth and compassion she bestowed so abundantly. In the cosmos of remembrance, let her name be uttered with a smile, for she was and continues to be a being beyond compare-an eternal flame in the hearts of those she leaves behind.
A Private Service will be held by the Family.