{"id":14848,"date":"2018-03-28T11:12:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T15:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=14848"},"modified":"2018-03-28T11:12:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T15:12:46","slug":"obituaries-connie-amway-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=14848","title":{"rendered":"Obituaries: Connie Amway Rice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connie Amway Rice<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 16, 1965 \u2013 March 10, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Connie Amway Rice<\/p><\/div>\n

The light that burns twice as bright, only burns half as long\u00a0 (after Lao Tsu).<\/em><\/p>\n

Connie\u2019s light shined very bright.<\/p>\n

Connie Rice \u2013 mother, grandmother, friend, wife and soulmate, passed away early in the morning on March 10, 2018 at John Sealy Hospital Trauma Center in Galveston from injuries suffered in a tragic, unexpected, and senseless automobile accident initiated by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 45 (Broadway) in Galveston.\u00a0 She and three friends were on the way home from the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo after an enjoyable evening.\u00a0 Her husband, Tom, went to the ER where she lay, visited her and, with tears in his eyes, kissed her gently on her forehead and told her goodbye \u2013 for now.\u00a0 Her children came shortly after and said their goodbyes, as well.\u00a0 Connie had a smile on her face even though she had passed on.<\/p>\n

Connie is preceded in death by her parents, Eric and Paula Amway.\u00a0 She is survived by her husband, Thomas G. Rice (TomCat); daughter, Erica Peralez and fianc\u00e9, Jay Puccetti; son, Alonso Peralez and fianc\u00e9, Alexis Spoon; grandchildren, Aidenn Calvin and Adelynn Renae Peralez; her sister, Cindy Timms and children, Cassidy and Trevor; uncle, Mark Schrader; mother-in-law, Catharine C. Townsend and husband, Tommy Townsend (deceased); father-in-law, John E. Rice and wife, Glenda, as well as extended family all across the country from Alaska to North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Connie was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and grew up there.\u00a0 She moved to Galveston with her family when she was 10 years old, attended grade school and Ball High School in Galveston.\u00a0 She worked at Sea Arama Marine Park and other odd jobs in Galveston.\u00a0 Her passion was caring for children.\u00a0 Connie loved children, and they loved her.\u00a0 Her career in daycare began when her daughter, Erica, cried about going to daycare, so Connie went to work at the daycare where her daughter was.\u00a0 Her career culminated in her being director of Child Works Day Care, for the last several years, in Santa Fe, Texas, where she worked closely with her boss and owner of the daycare, Kevin Andoe.\u00a0 Connie and Kevin had a unique and special relationship to the point that, from the way they talked to each other, many children there and their parents thought they were married \u2013 much to Connie\u2019s husband\u2019s amusement.\u00a0 Kevin did many wonderful things for Connie\u2019s children and grandchildren.\u00a0 Kevin misses her deeply, as does everyone whose lives she touched.\u00a0 He told Connie\u2019s husband, \u201cIf there\u2019s a heaven, you can bet she\u2019s in it.\u201d\u00a0 Kevin is a special person.<\/p>\n

Connie was short in stature; her husband would often tell her that the children loved her so much because she was the same height as they are.<\/p>\n

Connie possessed an infinite amount of love and gave it freely, touching hundreds, if not thousands, of children\u2019s and parents\u2019 lives as well as the lives of her friends and family.\u00a0 It is neither an understatement nor an exaggeration to say Connie could remember every child, their siblings, and family members\u2019 names that she met throughout her daycare career.\u00a0 Connie believed the best gift you could give yourself is to give to others, which she did.\u00a0 She helped kids at the day care and their families with monetary help, clothes or food.\u00a0 She helped friends and family by being someone they could tell their problems to.<\/p>\n

Connie also knew how to have fun, be it friends at the house, a party or a special occasion.\u00a0 She talked faster than lightning which caused her husband to become very adept at translating when someone would ask, \u201cWhat did she just say?\u201d\u00a0 God bless her, she could not dance but that never deterred her, whether with friends, family or kids at the day care.<\/p>\n

Connie and her husband met during their high school years, falling in love when their eyes first met \u2013 he was her first love and she, his.\u00a0 They went separate ways after a couple of years.\u00a0 Connie married and had two children.\u00a0 She kept tabs on Tom, unknown to him, throughout her marriage. \u00a0When her marriage dissolved, Tom and Connie got back together and, for the next 17 years, Connie and Tom did their best to make each other happy \u2013 and they did.\u00a0 Prior to Connie\u2019s first marriage, she gave Tom a wedding invitation.\u00a0 Tom did not attend the wedding.\u00a0 When they reunited, she asked Tom if he knew why she gave him that invitation.\u00a0 Tom said \u201cno.\u201d\u00a0 She replied, \u201cBecause I wanted you to come to the wedding, stop the wedding and take me with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connie loved butterflies.\u00a0 On the day of her passing, Tom found a quiet moment in their backyard that afternoon.\u00a0 They hadn\u2019t seen a butterfly in the yard so far this Spring.\u00a0 Suddenly a large swallowtail showed up and flitted around Tom for about five minutes and then went on its way:\u00a0 Connie had wasted no time in sending her love.<\/p>\n

Connie had a sense of humor; her wishes were that she should be cremated.\u00a0 \u201cMake sure I\u2019m extra crisp,\u201d she said one night while talking with friends about their wishes.\u00a0 Nor did she want a formal funeral.\u00a0 Instead, as she wished, a Celebration of Connie\u2019s Life, and of their life together, will be held April 14, 2018 at 2:00 PM at the old Guldman Residence at 1715 35th<\/sup> Street in Galveston \u2013 where Tom and Connie wed on October 20, 2007.\u00a0 Some form of pink attire is requested.\u00a0 Come happy!<\/p>\n

True love is a special and intangible commodity, Connie and Tom had it and still do.<\/p>\n

Rest in peace, my love, till we meet again \u2013 Tom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Connie Amway Rice April 16, 1965 \u2013 March 10, 2018 The light that burns twice as bright, only burns half as long\u00a0 (after Lao Tsu). Connie\u2019s light shined very bright. Connie Rice \u2013 mother, grandmother, friend, wife and soulmate, passed away early in the morning on March 10, 2018 at John Sealy Hospital Trauma Center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[6824,6825],"class_list":["post-14848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-connie-amway-rice","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14849,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14848\/revisions\/14849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}