Obituary for Nelson Ivan Navarro
Our father Nelson Iván Navarro Morales, was an amazing person.
He was born in the small northern Chilean city of Copiapó to Emma Morales and Humberto Navarro. The second of three children, he excelled in pranks and school…
The one remembered most was when they had gone to a circus/magic show and had seen the “Gran Tatali” perform the pull the tablecloth from the dining room table trick. You know the one, where the table is setup with all the utensils, glasses, plates, etc. and then you pull the tablecloth real fast and all the items stay on the table and you hold the cloth in your hand!
Fantastic when it works right? Well…our father thought so, and so he decided to show the family how fantastic it was. He set up the table, called the family over, and proclaimed to my grandmother “Mami, look, the Gran Tatali!!!” He pulled and off came the tablecloth…along with everything else that was on the table. He ran like a rocket and climbed onto the roof of the house and stayed there until nightfall fearing for his life…anyone knowing his mother would have probably said he wasn’t mistaken in his analysis.
His father passed away early on in life and his mother, working as a school teacher, raised and supported her three children. Because of her personality, pragmatism and the era in which they lived, she planned her children’s lives from an early age. She told her eldest son, “Nilsoto, you are good with your hands, you will go learn a trade, and he did. He was a master book binder, at one point tasked by the Chilean government to bind a book that would be presented to Pope John Paul II on his visit to Chile. She told her daughter, “Nona, you are girl, you will get married and have children…” Which she did, she has amazing daughters, grand children, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren…all that love her immensely.
Remember this was Chile in the early 40’s. To our father she said, “Ivansito, you are very smart, you will be an engineer.” He was, and he did become a great engineer, working all over the world in the process. He finished his first degree at age 18 at the Federico Santa Maria Techincal University in Valparaiso, Chile. From there he went on to the University of Chile in Santiago where he studied Civil Engineering, specializing in soil mechanics.
He met our mother through work and fell madly in love with her…and you can’t explain the love in any other way because that is the only explanation for deciding that being with a woman with 5 daughters from a previous marriage was a good life choice. Well it was the best decision he made by far. Our mother started by giving away his clothes after they married (his baby poo brown suit stood out in Mom’s mind many years later) and a new wardrobe was brought in. Needless to say, he loved all of those aforementioned 5 daughters as if they were his until the day he took his last breath.
In the early 70’s he worked for the Chilean government as the subminister of roadways. He was working in this position when the coup of 1973, led by Pinochet and approved by the US government, happened. He was in hiding for weeks at a friend’s house not knowing what would happen to him. By the next year our family had started their move to Canada where we would plant our roots over the next 47 years.
He was an amazing husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. He had the best dad jokes of anyone I’ve ever known. He had a running joke with his son and granddaughters (they were basically all raised together). They would all find out years later, when as adults they would go shopping for their own families, that comicalla (pronounced coumicaya) was actually mortadella. You see, as kids, they would ask what it was that he was putting in their sandwiches and he would always say “comicalla” so they started asking for it by this name. He must have laughed inwardly every time he said this because comicalla was actually “Come y calla” which means Eat and Shut Up. Imagine a running joke that only he laughs at for over 20 years…he played the long game.
He was the most loving and patient person we have ever known, and we were proud to have him in our lives. He lived to the age of 90 and he spent his last days with his son by his side fighting to stay with us until he could again see the family he loved. Unfortunately, in spite of his fighting spirit, he left us to rest peacefully and to go be with the love of his life again.
We will miss you more than you will ever know Ivansote but we will celebrate you and smile because you are with your Albita. As you always wanted to be. With her by your side.
He was preceded in his passing by his love, Alba in 2015. He leaves behind his sister, Nona; son, Rodrigo and his fiancée, Candace, children, Camille and Vicente Iván; daughter, Carmen Sofía, her husband, Virgilio, their daughters Carolina, Nicole, Camille and Britney; daughter, Verónica, her daughters Javiera and Daniela; daughter, Monica, her husband, Marcial, their children, Felipe and Valentina; daughter, Loreto and her daughters, Soledad and Fabiola; daughter, Cecilia and her children, Diego, Antonia and Vicente; and 14 great-grandchildren.
We will be celebrating his life with a BBQ at a local park once Covid restrictions are lifted. Please reach out to members of the family for details once restrictions are lifted. To view and share photos, condolences and memories of Ivan, please visit www.choicememorial.com.
He was born in the small northern Chilean city of Copiapó to Emma Morales and Humberto Navarro. The second of three children, he excelled in pranks and school…
The one remembered most was when they had gone to a circus/magic show and had seen the “Gran Tatali” perform the pull the tablecloth from the dining room table trick. You know the one, where the table is setup with all the utensils, glasses, plates, etc. and then you pull the tablecloth real fast and all the items stay on the table and you hold the cloth in your hand!
Fantastic when it works right? Well…our father thought so, and so he decided to show the family how fantastic it was. He set up the table, called the family over, and proclaimed to my grandmother “Mami, look, the Gran Tatali!!!” He pulled and off came the tablecloth…along with everything else that was on the table. He ran like a rocket and climbed onto the roof of the house and stayed there until nightfall fearing for his life…anyone knowing his mother would have probably said he wasn’t mistaken in his analysis.
His father passed away early on in life and his mother, working as a school teacher, raised and supported her three children. Because of her personality, pragmatism and the era in which they lived, she planned her children’s lives from an early age. She told her eldest son, “Nilsoto, you are good with your hands, you will go learn a trade, and he did. He was a master book binder, at one point tasked by the Chilean government to bind a book that would be presented to Pope John Paul II on his visit to Chile. She told her daughter, “Nona, you are girl, you will get married and have children…” Which she did, she has amazing daughters, grand children, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren…all that love her immensely.
Remember this was Chile in the early 40’s. To our father she said, “Ivansito, you are very smart, you will be an engineer.” He was, and he did become a great engineer, working all over the world in the process. He finished his first degree at age 18 at the Federico Santa Maria Techincal University in Valparaiso, Chile. From there he went on to the University of Chile in Santiago where he studied Civil Engineering, specializing in soil mechanics.
He met our mother through work and fell madly in love with her…and you can’t explain the love in any other way because that is the only explanation for deciding that being with a woman with 5 daughters from a previous marriage was a good life choice. Well it was the best decision he made by far. Our mother started by giving away his clothes after they married (his baby poo brown suit stood out in Mom’s mind many years later) and a new wardrobe was brought in. Needless to say, he loved all of those aforementioned 5 daughters as if they were his until the day he took his last breath.
In the early 70’s he worked for the Chilean government as the subminister of roadways. He was working in this position when the coup of 1973, led by Pinochet and approved by the US government, happened. He was in hiding for weeks at a friend’s house not knowing what would happen to him. By the next year our family had started their move to Canada where we would plant our roots over the next 47 years.
He was an amazing husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. He had the best dad jokes of anyone I’ve ever known. He had a running joke with his son and granddaughters (they were basically all raised together). They would all find out years later, when as adults they would go shopping for their own families, that comicalla (pronounced coumicaya) was actually mortadella. You see, as kids, they would ask what it was that he was putting in their sandwiches and he would always say “comicalla” so they started asking for it by this name. He must have laughed inwardly every time he said this because comicalla was actually “Come y calla” which means Eat and Shut Up. Imagine a running joke that only he laughs at for over 20 years…he played the long game.
He was the most loving and patient person we have ever known, and we were proud to have him in our lives. He lived to the age of 90 and he spent his last days with his son by his side fighting to stay with us until he could again see the family he loved. Unfortunately, in spite of his fighting spirit, he left us to rest peacefully and to go be with the love of his life again.
We will miss you more than you will ever know Ivansote but we will celebrate you and smile because you are with your Albita. As you always wanted to be. With her by your side.
He was preceded in his passing by his love, Alba in 2015. He leaves behind his sister, Nona; son, Rodrigo and his fiancée, Candace, children, Camille and Vicente Iván; daughter, Carmen Sofía, her husband, Virgilio, their daughters Carolina, Nicole, Camille and Britney; daughter, Verónica, her daughters Javiera and Daniela; daughter, Monica, her husband, Marcial, their children, Felipe and Valentina; daughter, Loreto and her daughters, Soledad and Fabiola; daughter, Cecilia and her children, Diego, Antonia and Vicente; and 14 great-grandchildren.
We will be celebrating his life with a BBQ at a local park once Covid restrictions are lifted. Please reach out to members of the family for details once restrictions are lifted. To view and share photos, condolences and memories of Ivan, please visit www.choicememorial.com.