Guerrero was described as a very hardworking woman devoted to her family.
Rubble is all that is left of the house at 667 Union St. in West Springfield where Angelica Guerrero died while shielding her daughter during Wednesday's tornado.WEST SPRINGFIELD – People who knew Angelica Guerrero, the 40-year-old mother who sacrificed her life to save her daughter, Ibone, from Wednesday’s tornado have described her as a saint devoted to her family.
Guerrero died after shielding her 15-year-old daughter, Ibone, in a bathtub in their 667 Union St. apartment in the hard-hit Merrick section of the city.
Angelica was a very quiet, hardworking woman who was “all about her family,” according to Victor Richey, who spoke to The Republican on Friday. Richey used to live in the third-floor apartment in the same triple-decker in which Angelica resided with her family. The Guerreros lived on the first floor of the building.
Richey recalled Angelica as a beautiful woman who wore her hair up and was a good dresser as well as an excellent housekeeper. The Guerreros babysat for his children, who were friends with the family’s two daughters, Richey said.
“My kids adored them,” Richey said of the Guerrero family.
His children were close to Ibone and Fabiola, the Guerros’ older daughter who graduated from West Springfield High School last year, Richey said.
The Guerreros were “a very, very tight family” who were nice, but kept to themselves, according to Richey.
West Springfield, MA -- Juan Gurrero consoles his daughter Ibone, 15, in their hospital room a day after she lost her mother Angelica, and older sister Fabiola,18, at the home on Union Street that was destroyed after a tornado touched down yesterday on Thursday, June 2, 2011. (Boston Herald photo by Byron Smith)The two households used to have backyard cookouts together to which Angelica contributed tasty Mexican food, their former neighbor said.
Angelica and her husband, Juan, were originally from Mexico and moved to Union Street about eight years ago after having lived in California and Missouri.
Angelica worked at the Wendy’s in the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, and Juan stayed at home looking after the foster children the family took in.
“She had the reputation of a saint,” said Steven Wenners, an automobile detailer who works next door to the Guerreros at Shine Rite Auto Cleaning & Detailing at 685 Union St.
“She was a very good mom. She loved her family. She was always with the family or going to work,” Wenners said.
Wenners said the family was generous, and members often handed him pizza over the fence between their home and Shine Rite.
“He was frantically trying to dig her out,” Wenners said of Juan’s efforts to recover his wife from the rubble of their collapsed building immediately after the tornado hit the area. Juan braved gas leaks and sparks in his efforts to save his wife, according to Wenners.
Neighbors used a chain saw to try to free the woman, who was later taken out of the wreckage by firefighters, Wenners said.