Gladys Kesterson (1917 – 2015)

On Friday, the 22nd of May, 2015, the world lost a true original: Gladys Kesterson (nee' Rodriguez). Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico on 20 Dec 1917, Gladys was a unique, energetic, and adventurous person who touched many lives as a nurse, teacher, and world traveler. After working as an Army combat nurse in Europe during WWII, she was a public health nurse, and then became an elementary school nurse/health teacher, but when she retired, Gladys decided to see if she could visit every country in the world. She didn't quite make it – in her words, she visited "only" 87 of them, including two trips to China, the first one of which was the year after the ban on American tourists was lifted. She shared her love of travel by taking her granddaughter, Heather (Jewell) Johnson to see Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Edinburgh in the UK, then to New Zealand where Heather got to dance with Maori tribesmen. Gladys rappelled on a zip line through a rain forest in Costa Rica, rode a camel in Egypt, and kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland, all after her 85th birthday. An avid reader, dedicated cross-word enthusiast, and able to discuss anything intelligently, Gladys tackled the task of learning how to do email on her 90th birthday, claiming that she was 'slowing down' and needed something new to do. She passed from this life at the home of her daughter, Dale Kesterson Hingle, after a decline in her health, at age 97. Preceded in death by her older sister Violeta (who died at the age of 96 in 2011) and a niece, Gladys is survived by her brother Harold Rodriguez (now 95), her daughter, her granddaughter, three nieces and a nephew. No funeral or memorial service is planned – the family asks that friends remember her in their own way.