June Alvarez

June Elizabeth Alvarez nursed on the children's ward at Riverside General for thirty-eight years, and was the person a frightened parent was quietly handed to. She trained more than a hundred nurses and kept in touch with most of them.

She hosted Christmas for forty years without exception, for a family that grew every year and for anyone on the ward roster who had nowhere to go. The gingerbread house was built on the twentieth of December, and it was always, in her words, structurally unsound and delicious.

She is survived by her husband Raúl, her children Daniel and Sofia, five grandchildren and a great many former patients who are now parents themselves. This year, Christmas is at Sofia's, and everyone is still invited.