At Easter Mass for fire victims, Archbishop Gomez stresses the Resurrection
Valerie Mendoza and her husband of 11 years, Roberto Villatoro, moved into their two-bedroom, two-bathroom Altadena home on Valentine’s Day 2020. It was built in 1951 by a Jet Propulsion Lab engineer who decorated it with inlaid rocks he polished as a hobby. It had a patio angled for spectacular views of downtown Los Angeles that took their breath away.
The couple loved how they lived just three minutes uphill from their parish, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Altadena.
But the Eaton Fire took that away last January.
Both their home and church share an address on North Lake Street, a busy thoroughfare starting in Pasadena that narrows as it reaches the base of the San Gabriel Mountains.