Leticia Alma Mercado Blundon Obituary

On May 15, 2023, our Lettie, our Warrior Queen, concluded her four year battle against colorectal cancer. She died peacefully at the Methodist Hospice Residence of Memphis TN, where she had retired in 2019. She was surrounded by loving friends and family for all of that day and evening.

Leticia Alma Mercado Blundon was born in West Islip, Long Island, NY on March 1, 1955. For most of her childhood she was raised in a foster home along with her older brother and sister and foster brother. She attended Brentwood High School on Long Island and then Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster MA. While in college Lettie began her lifelong career in healthcare by taking a part time job as nursing aide in a nursing home in nearby Clinton MA. In 1977 Lettie moved to Chestertown MD to live with her sister Ida and her family, and continued her work as a nursing aide at Magnolia Hall Nursing Home in Chestertown, where she met her future husband Jay, also working there part time while attending college. They fell in love and were married on Thanksgiving Eve, November 21, 1979, and for the next 43 years were devoted partners in life and love.

Whether living in Cambridge or Beltsville MD, Austin TX, or Memphis TN, in every town Lettie's passion for helping those in need was practiced in the healthcare profession, in jobs such as unit secretary in emergency room and cardiac care units and as arrhythmia specialist/cardiac monitor technician in cardiac ICUs. She lastly joined the Methodist Hospice System in Memphis TN where she expanded the volunteer program serving as their volunteer specialist.

While in Texas, Lettie and Jay had two sons, Brandon and Gaven. Her love and dedication to her sons and husband was absolute and steadfast, and she was indeed the joyful heart and center of the Blundon home. When the boys left Memphis for college, Lettie and Jay found new interests to share together, from raising birds at home, to riding scooters with the Memphis Kings Scooter Club, to playing ukulele and singing with the Memphis Ukulele Flash Mob. And she loved to dance! She was always the first one on the dance floor, and often the last to sit down. Through work and all her other activities and interests, Lettie touched the lives of so very many. Her love of people and life, her welcoming spirit, her kind and generous heart, her resilient life-force, her sense of fun and humor immediately connected her with everyone she met and drew them close.

Lettie is survived by husband Jay and son Brandon, both of Memphis, son Gaven and precious granddaughter Conley of Fallston MD, sister Ida of Chestertown MD, brother Ivan and his wife Robin of Ronkonkoma NY, foster brother Gabriel Reyes and his wife Barbara of Norfolk VA, sister-in-law Faith and her husband Karl of Breklem Germany, along with many nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews. A Celebration of Life for Lettie will be held March 2, 2024 at the Center for Southern Folklore in downtown Memphis. Bring your ukulele or other musical instrument and be prepared to sing and rejoice in the wonderful life of our Lettie. If you wish to honor Lettie with a donation in her name, her favorite charities were St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Methodist Hospice Residence of Memphis.