Luisa Boyerman

Luisa (Bella) Boyerman, 91, was born Luisa Andia to Juan and Casiana Andia on October 10, 1928, in San Juan de Buena Vista, Oruro, Bolivia. On Sunday, June 7, 2020 Luisa passed away.

Luisa was a dedicated nurse (R.N.) for 50 years, and retired from Huntington Memorial Hospital. She received her degree from La Clinica Americana de Enfermeras, one of the first American teaching hospitals for nursing in Bolivia. To Luisa, nursing was not just a career, it was a calling. During this time in her life she helped countless people and was always beloved by her patients.

Luisa loved being a nurse and always told stories about her experiences to her family. One of her favorites was how she became top of her class despite all of her classmates assuming she was stupid because she had dark skin. She would tell her family that the other young women cared more about how they looked than about their studies. She saw education as a means for understanding the world and the people in it.

After graduating, she was hired at a new, state of the art hospital in Uyuni, Bolivia, a mining town. She was devoted to her profession and well respected by all of the doctors she worked with. The surgeons especially depended on her. They often called upon her to aid them in their efforts to repair the broken bodies of young miners who were injured daily. During a violent strike, the miners actually protected Luisa because she took such good care of them when they were in the hospital.

In 1962 she married Luis Boyerman and had three children, Rebecca Janeth, Grace Ettelbina (deceased), and Harold Adolfo Boyerman. In 1967 she moved to Pasadena, CA in the United States of America, where she resided until the time of her passing. In 1973 Luis and Luisa divorced and she raised Rebecca and Harold by herself, often working 16 hours a day to provide for her children and make it possible for them to go to college.

When her first grandchild, Christopher Dimmock, was born, Luisa decided to retire from the work that had always meant so much to her in order to help raise him. Soon after becoming a grandmother, Luisa came to be known as Bella (as Christopher couldn't say "Abuela") and subsequently went on to help raise all five of her other grandchildren, Timothy and Casiana Dimmock, and Madison, Hayden and Loretta Boyerman.

Bella's two greatest concerns in life were that her grandchildren received an education and that they always had more food; whether they were actually hungry was irrelevant. Bella took pride in all of her grandchildren's achievements and was greatly loved by each and every one of them.

In the last several years of her life, Bella was cared for by her daughter Rebecca. Rebecca treated Bella with the same love and attention that she had always given to both her family and patients.

At 91, Bella had accomplished all of her goals decades ago, she outlived all of her seven siblings, and she thought of death, not as some scary finality, but as the next step in life. The family members and loved ones Bella leaves behind can take comfort knowing that Bella was ready to pass on and, as she often said, "hug Jesus." Bella was a devout Christian, and for those of us that believe, we can also take comfort knowing that she is in Heaven, hugging Jesus, her last true wish.


Arrangements are under the direction of Douglass & Zook Funeral and Cremation Services, Monrovia, California.