Gabrielle Kristine Esquivel

Eulogy written and read by Adam Esquivel

Good evening everyone. Most of you here today know me, or at least of me, but for those who don’t my name is Adam Esquivel and I am Gabby's Husband. I was blessed to have her in my life and be by her side for 9 years.

When I sat down to put this together I wanted to be able to convey to somebody who had never met Gabby who she is, but that is no small undertaking. How can you paint a re-creation of a gorgeous, breathtaking, absolutely stunning work of art with limited tools and ability to capture everything that made the subject moving? The first word that came to mind was “Radiant”. Gabrielle is positively radiant. The energy shifted in every room she entered, and you just knew she had arrived. Whether it was flinging the door open and coming in dancing with a way too loud, “hellllleeeerrrrr” and goofy dance only Gabby could do, or just slipping in and brightening the room with her warm smile, you couldn’t help but be engrossed in her energy. She is radiant.

Gabrielle Kristine was born March 18, 1995 to Hope and Jeff Duffy in San Jose, California. The family moved to Modesto just before Gabby was two years old, and from the time she was mobile, Gabrielle made her presence known. Even from an early age on the softball field, girls knew not to try and steal home if Gabby was catching because Gabrielle was notorious for defending home plate like she was defending her actual home from a band of raiders; you got too close you're going to get knocked on your ass. Starting in middle school she successfully managed to get herself suspended from school once a year like clockwork, and actually went back-to-back her junior year. Senior year she straightened herself out because she had a goal she wanted to accomplish and couldn’t do it on the path she was on. While on the straight and narrow she attended California Beauty College her second half of senior year and into the summer after high school. Much to the relief of her mother, Hope, Gabby graduated as part of Gregori High’s first graduating class in Spring 2013.

When Gabby set her mind on a goal or something she wanted, there was not a damn thing anyone could do to stop her from getting it. You either stood in her path and got run over or rallied behind her and enjoyed the ride. That “no other options” mindset started early but my favorite and true-to-Gabby example is a list of “Five Lifetime Goals” she wrote as she was getting ready to exit high school.

1. Join the Marines
2. Travel
3. Get an old Dodge Challenger up and running
4. Become a tattoo artist
5. Get married and have kids.

Her goals were always being achieved and, quite often, crossed over into each other to create a life of beautiful experiences.

On that same sheet she filled out, there was a space for trade school: No. College: No. Under military service she wrote: Marine Corps. Now no offense to anyone in here tonight from any other branch, we as Marines love you a whole lot, but there's a reason Gabby chose to enlist with the branch she did. Ask anyone from another branch and you might get, “Oh I was in the Army,” or “I served in the Navy,” but you ask us and you'll surely get, “I am a Marine.” It's that elevated title, that following in the footsteps of the giants that came before, that total grit that pulled Gabby in. And she excelled. Gabby enlisted and shipped off to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island in September of 2013 and graduated 13 weeks later. After combat training she ended up at Marine Corps air ground combat center, Twentynine Palms for communications school where she excelled. Upon graduation Gabrielle was assigned to her first duty station at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. She frequently traveled up and down the country seeing all there was to see. My girl loves to explore and she made the most of her time abroad while stationed in Japan, visiting major city centers like Tokyo and Hiroshima and smaller off-the-grid locations like Miyajima Island where deer, quite literally, roam free and stole her map out of her hand. Her second and final duty station was at Camp Pendleton in Southern California where she finished her enlistment and passed her knowledge and mastery of her work to her fellow Marines. Sometimes by-the-book way. Sometimes the, “you didn’t hear this from me and if you mess this up this will break and we’re all screwed but it's faster this way.”

The first time I saw Gabrielle was when I was home for a month-long leave between training to help the local recruiting office. She was scheduled to be leaving for bootcamp in the near future and hadn’t been to the office once the entire month I was there except one time. The recruits were outside getting ready to exercise and there was this girl. Sporty clothes and man, when she looked at me and we locked eyes, I'm getting butterflies right now remembering that look. We didn’t say a word, but I turned from a confident Marine to a jittery bag of mush. I saw her once and that’s all it took, I was hers from that moment on. Radiant. I ended up messaging her and I wrote her letters all the while she was at bootcamp, and we finally got to meet in person when she got back home. She asked if I wanted to come over and meet her family since they were over and hanging out for a small Christmas get together. She told me it was a SMALL get together. I ended up meeting the entire family. Everyone. I met cousins, tias, tios, her siblings, Victoria, Adrianna and Nathan, and her wonderful parents, Hope and Jeff. She thought it would be hilarious to let me walk into an ambush of, “who’s this guy,” introductions. I couldn’t help but be completely enthralled by this woman and six months later we were married at the courthouse in San Francisco. When that girl wanted to do something she really made it happen and I was grateful she chose me to take on this journey with her. From then on whether it was coordinating a 17 hour time difference between here and Japan so we could have dates via facetime, or moving away from everything I knew to start a new life with her in Southern California, wherever Gabrielle was is where I called home.

We spent some time living the newlywed couple's life and enjoying our time together. We didn’t have much so when she found out Walmart had an industrial size box of cookies for five dollars, we would eat entire rows of cookies and watch Bob’s Burgers. It’s little moments like that where she made me try to stop and just soak up every memory. Another time she made me steak; I had one and went back to scoop the juice and sauce out of the pan to put over the rest of my steak, and when I took a bite it tasted off. I figured it was just me so I ate on. A few more pieces eaten and I asked her if hers tasted like this and she went wide eyed and told me she thought I was done so she put dish soap in the pan. I remember making her laugh. Like really belly laugh. Her cheeks rose, and her eyes squinted while she kind of tilted her head back and started to cackle and wheeze between apologies. There I sat, mouthful of green Dawn dish soap seasoned steak, completely intoxicated by her laugh, and I knew I never wanted to forget that moment. Our beautiful little boy Levi came around April 23, 2016 and from then on I was relegated to second place in her heart, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Never have I ever seen a love so pure and all-encompassing. The older he got, the more of her mannerisms she would pass on to him, and the next thing I know, I have two Gabrielle's running around feeding off each other's energy. She would play piano and sing off key and loud on purpose, and he would howl and scream in harmony with his mom. She would dance and be silly and he would hype her up and dance harder, which created this feedback loop of chaos energy that really was a sight to see. Never have I seen a duo like Gabrielle and Levi.

Throughout the entire time I was at her side Gabby had a passion for tattoos. It started with a tattoo for her father, Jeff, on her collarbone, followed by a flower on her shoulder with her mothers name, Hope, below it, and progressed to as many as she could get. It was never about just getting covered in tattoos with Gabrielle. She would make trips to different shops to get pieces from different specific artists she looked up to. Every time she left a shop you could see a small ember in her eyes beginning to grow until one day she decided to pursue another goal from her list and become a tattoo artist herself. She began to draw traditional roses and eagles and anything else that came to her mind that she committed to paper. Eventually she began an apprenticeship and from there she never looked back. Some time later she was offered a spot here in town, and she buckled down to hone her craft. With every piece she did she became more and more sure this is what she wanted to spend her life doing. If she wasn’t at the shop tattooing, she was at home drawing the next piece that came to her mind. Throughout her time tattooing she never stopped getting pieces herself. One day she told me about how excited she was for an upcoming appointment she made at a shop called Pastime Tattoo in San Leandro because she was a huge fan of the artist she was getting work done by, Nate Burrow. She had flash designs and his art on the walls at home and before the appointment she texted me she was nervous she’d “fangirl out” because this dude is one of her heroes. She came home and told me how well the appointment went and how they became friends because of the shared love of art and both being prior service enlisted. She continued to work and would often mention how working at Pastime would be the ultimate spot for her to end up tattooing out of, and I told her to stay the course and one day her heroes would be her peers. She called me at work one day absolutely giddy with good news. Nate and Ben from Pastime had offered her a spot to work at her dream location and when I say this girl was over-the-moon. Hearing the slight tremor of excitement in her voice, how she recalled the way they offered her the opportunity, the range of emotions she displayed was infectious, and she radiated this sense of triumph and joy. I am forever grateful she was able to not only pursue her passion, but was able to accomplish landing a spot at her dream location. Her heroes really did become her peers.

It is impossible for me to try to convey the emotions that such a gorgeous, bold, stunning, force of nature, a work of art like Gabrielle is. She is radiant. Much like the work she passionately did, Gabrielle left a permanent mark on each and every one of us. Energy like hers never really goes away but instead shifts and becomes all-encompassing. While she might not be here physically, she will always live on in our hearts and as the energy around us with gentle reminders she isn’t far away.