Paulita’s Deathbed Prayer: Keep St. Isidore Church Alive

Last week, as Paula “Paulita” Cano, 101 years old, lay on her deathbed, she expressed only one wish: that people keep fighting for St. Isidore.

In honor of a woman who was literally a part of its history, the tiny, historic Los Alamitos church with the colorful stained-glass windows reopened its doors Tuesday night for a rosary vigil in her honor and again Wednesday morning for her funeral.

More than 200 family members, friends and former parishioners packed the small mission for Mass and to pay their respects to a woman described as a “mother” to the small Mexican community in Los Alamitos.

A large arrangement of red and pink roses was centered on the blue casket before the simple altar. Three priests said the Mass and remembered a remarkable woman who relied on faith, the church and her community.

Father Rigoberto Rodriguez eulogized Cano and remembered how she helped him settle in the area when he arrived from Mexico.

“I don’t remember a day that she spoke a bad word about someone,” he said. She had a million stories to share with all who came into contact with her and visited the church daily, he said.

Everyone knew Paulita. After all, she was one of the church’s founders.

The building has been closed since Aug. 29 because, according to engineers hired by the church, it needs an estimated $265,000 to $300,000 in earthquake retrofitting.

Cano’s father, along with other Mexican farm laborers in the tightly knit community, helped build the church on Reagan Street in 1922. It has been the site of innumerable baptisms, first communions, confirmations, weddings and funerals.

The Diocese of Orange cannot afford to retrofit the church but is meeting with a committee of former church members--the Comite del Amor, or Committee of Love--to talk about its future. A meeting scheduled Tuesday night between the group and Bishop Tod D. Brown of the Orange County diocese was canceled, however, because diocese officials said they feared publicity would turn the private meeting into a public forum. The meeting was rescheduled for today, although the time and location were not disclosed.

Connie Sevilla, 68, is on the committee and hopes the church opens either for regular Masses or, as a last resort, as a historical site.

“We won’t stop until we get our doors open,” she said after the funeral.