By Town Crier Report

Mrs. Silva

Ethel Thompson Silva died of natural causes on April 14. She was 103.

She was a longtime resident of San Carlos, Cupertino and Los Altos.

Mrs. Silva enjoyed cooking, crocheting, playing the organ, traveling around the world, card games and her family and friends.

Mrs. Silva was born Nov. 7, 1901, on a farm in Pomona. The daughter of a farmer, she learned healthful basics of life at an early age. She was the sixth child in a family of seven, with three brothers and three sisters.

After graduating from the Southern Branch of the University of California (later UCLA), Mrs. Silva taught in the Redwood City Schools and for San Mateo County Special Education.

She volunteered at Kaiser Hospital in Redwood City after her retirement at 65. Kaiser Hospital Volunteers honored her for the hours she spent supporting families while their loved ones were in surgery.

In her 80s, Mrs. Silva adopted several “older ladies” and visited them regularly to keep them company. She spent most of her life helping people.

Mrs. Silva credited her longevity to a healthful lifestyle.

She rode her stationary bike every day into her hundreds, took vitamins, practiced alternative health methods and didn’t eat “junk food.”

Mrs. Silva lived in Los Altos the past four years. She lived at both Bridgepoint and Pilgrim Haven retirement communities.

Mrs. Silva is preceded in death by her husband, Henry G. Silva.

She is survived by her daughter Lerelle and her husband Frank Kazmierczak of San Jose; grandchildren, Sherri Bakos and her husband Joel, and Scott Rice and his wife Jill; her great-grandchildren, Jennifer and Allyson of Los Altos and Kyle of Lahaina, Hawaii; and her sister Lucille of Atlanta, Ga.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the American Heart Association.