Obituary of Jacinto Moniz Lopes

Jacinto Moniz Lopes.Jacinto Moniz Lopes was born on February 17th, 1930, in the village of São Brás, the Island of São Miguel, in the Azores, Portugal. He was the fifth child out of a total of six sons and a daughter born to Honorato Lopes Tavares and Maria José Correia Moniz. He went to school locally and worked with his father, brothers and grandfather on the family lands, and with their herds. In April of 1960, after a long courtship, he married his intended, Maria do Rosario de Freitas-Melo. Unfortunately, due to limited opportunities in the Azores, he soon immigrated to Canada where three of his brothers already lived. He originally stayed with his brother Manuel in their house near Dundas and Spadina, Toronto. In the beginning Jacinto worked doing odd jobs and then joined a crew building the rail lines in northern Ontario. In the meantime, Maria continued to live with her parents in São Brás, and about a year after their marriage gave birth to their son José. In 1963 they were finally able to join Jacinto in Toronto where Maria gave birth to their daughters Ana and Paula. In a couple of years time the family were able to purchase a house on MacKenzie Crescent in Parkdale. Jacinto continued to work in different jobs and was a truck driver for a wood flooring company for many years. The family eventually moved to a house in Streetsville, Mississauga, Ontario. After retiring, Jacinto became the family driver, and as his granddaughter Catherine said in a book dedication "he drove me to my first day of kindergarten and my last day of university". After a long illness, his wife Maria do Rosario passed away in 2016. Jacinto continued to live closely with his family but in recent years suffered declining health. On Friday, December 27th he passed away peacefully at Credit Valley Hospital. He left behind his son José, daughters Ana and Paula, grandchildren Catherine, Nicholas, Sophia, Anastasia, step-grandchildren James-Paul and Mark, great-grandson Dominic, sons-in-law Roy Gomez and Fr. Ihor Petryk, and grandson-in-law Diego Amezquita. He also left behind his elder sister Alexandrina, brothers Manuel and Carlos, and dozens of godchildren, nephews and nieces. R.I.P.