Lourdes Leruite Matesanz, our beloved mother, died at her home in Taunton, Massachusetts on March 20, 2017 at the age of 91. She was born in Valladolid, Spain on September 13, 1925 to a French mother, Marie Antoinette Declerieux Leruite, and a Belgian father, Simeon Leruite Dehaspe. Lourdes was the youngest of four siblings, by 16 years, and she spent her childhood and adolescence in Valladolid where she lived through the Spanish Civil War. She attended Colegio de las Dominicanas Francesas and after the war worked in a children’s orphanage and school in Valladolid.
In 1949 she married Dr. E. Jaime Matesanz and moved to the small Castilian village of Magaz, Palencia where Dr. Matesanz was the sole medical practitioner. In Magaz Lourdes gave birth to her four surviving children: James (and wife Nancy Frye), Jorge (and wife Ellen Champagne), Xavier and Maria Eugenia.
In 1960 Lourdes and her family immigrated to the US. After a brief time in Huntington, West Virginia they moved to Taunton, residing there from 1961 to 1964, and then spent three years in London, Ontario. Lourdes and her family returned to Taunton in 1967 where Dr. Matesanz practiced psychiatry at Taunton State Hospital and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, and Lourdes practiced being a supermom to her children as well as to all the friends and acquaintances who came to their home.
Lourdes became a US citizen in 1973 but retained very strong ties to Spain and her many relatives and friends there. She loved being surrounded by young people and gave as well as received a lot of energy and love from them. Lourdes was a ‘renaissance mom’: an excellent caregiver, cook, seamstress, home decorator, gardener and artist. She learned to drive late in life at age 43 to chauffer her children and better pursue her social and cultural interests. She belonged to the Taunton Garden Club, the Taunton Art Association, St. Mary’s Church
and volunteered many hours at schools and charitable organizations in the area.
Lourdes loved to travel and especially loved to fly. After her first airplane flight back to Spain in 1971 she returned multiple times and traveled extensively to Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Belgium, France and Peru.
After her children left home and her husband retired she became a part time Spanish court translator for the New Bedford and Fall River district courts, which she thoroughly enjoyed, though she tended to be too empathetic with the accused, which worried her family.
In addition to her four children Lourdes is survived by her loving and accomplished grandchildren who were her pride and joy: David Matesanz, Jay Matesanz, Dr. Susan Matesanz, Christian Matesanz, Nicholas Matesanz, Gabriel Matesanz, Erika Bjerklie and Sarah Bjerklie.
A memorial mass for Lourdes will be held on May 6 at 10 am at the Annunciation of the Lord Church in Taunton.