Gloria Colcol Ducay

Gloria Colcol Ducay was born on May 30th, 1944, in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, Philippines. As a young girl, Gloria enjoyed spending a majority of her time with her beloved grandmother where they enjoyed cooking, eating, and going to church together. Aside from growing up with her grandmother, Gloria also helped operate her family’s sari-sari store near Suso Beach in Santa Maria. As a teenager, she enjoyed listening to music, reading books, watching action movies like James Bond, and singing.

Throughout Gloria’s childhood and later on into young adulthood, she often times showed great bravery and courage, as she could not be easily intimidated by anyone. In grade school, she would countlessly defend any student she saw from being bullied. This aspect of her personality did not change as Gloria carried this courageousness with her while attending nursing school and practicing as a nurse in Tagudin. When armed political forces frequently came to the hospital where she worked to assert dominance, Gloria was the only nurse who politely talked them into leaving the premises so that the patients and medical staff could comfortably dwell in the hospital.

After serving as a nurse in Tagudin for two years, Gloria sought out to expand her training and immigrated to Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, as an exchange student in the 1970s. She was taken in by a Polish couple, Rose McCormick and her husband, whom she was very close to as they adopted her into their lives. Gloria even gave her daughter Rose’s name as her middle name when she was born.

During her free time in Chicago, Gloria immensely enjoyed going out with her friends to bowling alleys and dancing. She even took many trips during her time as a single woman to places like Detroit, Michigan, Hawaii, and she even visited the Ozarks.

Around 1976, Gloria was introduced to the love her life, Geronimo Ducay, through her longtime best friend Lita Mina. On November 27th, 1976, Geronimo and Gloria made it official and got married in a wedding with friends in Chicago. The newlyweds later moved to Seattle, Washington, and had two children, their daughter Kimberly and son Hector. Gloria and Geronimo enjoyed going fishing, clamming, and harvesting seaweeds together and even taught their appreciation for these hobbies to their children. They also enjoyed taking day trips to beaches and parks around Washington State.

Gloria worked as a certified nursing assistant for Kline Galland Home, a nursing home where she cared for Holocaust survivors and elders in the Jewish community for over 32 years. After retiring, Gloria enjoyed baby-sitting her two grandsons, taking care of her mother, and cooking for Sophia, her friend’s child, whom Gloria loved and treated as her own child from the day she was born.

Gloria was also a devout Catholic and regularly attended St. Edwards Church for many years. She truly believed in the power of prayer and felt at peace when the deacon visited her at the hospital during her last days. Gloria was always a strong-minded person and once she knew what she wanted, you could not change her mind. She was able to speak her wishes even toward the end of her life and is one of her biggest strengths as an independent woman.

Gloria passed away peacefully in her sleep on August 3, 2022.  She is survived by her son, Hector Ducay; her daughter and son-in-law, Kimberly and Benjamin Hitchcock; her grandsons, Nathaniel Hitchcock and Rylan Hitchcock; her spiritually adopted daughter, Sophia Mekonen; her brother and sister-in-law, Daniel and Elizabeth Colcol; her nephew Daniel Colcol, III; nieces Gillian and Pai; and all of her extended in-laws, cousins, nieces, and nephews.

There will be a viewing service for Gloria on August 22, 2022, at Columbia Funeral Home, in Seattle, from 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM. Funeral services will be at St. Edwards Church on August 23, 2022, at 10:30 AM.

If you would like to send flowers you can send them by August 22 to Columbia City Funeral Home.