[Saw this today looking through older news files. Thought someone might need it. I do not know this Lady]

Victim's granddaughter recalls her generous, patient nature
July 23, 2001
09:00:00 AM
By Lois Gormley
Appeal-Democrat
Yuba County California

When 69-year-old Mary Lewis was brutally murdered nearly a year ago, her family lost its backbone - the guiding force that brought them all together, her granddaughter said.
"It's been very hard to move on without her," said Tosha Adams, Lewis' granddaughter. "Christmas was not the same. Nobody went to see anybody on Christmas or Thanksgiving. We'd always gone to Gramms."

Lewis' body was discovered in her Colusa home Aug. 5. She had been stabbed approximately 90 times while she lay bound, hand and foot, on her living room floor.

Within weeks of her murder two teens, Ralph Dale Leon, 19, and Joshua L. Valentine, 16, were arrested. Both pleaded guilty to her murder and were sentenced to 25 years to life Monday. Adams is glad the court proceedings are over, but said it will never really be finished.

"In 25 years at least, I'm going to be at a parole hearing," she said. "No matter what, I don't want to see either one of them get out. I'm not as good a person as my grandmother. I cannot forgive and forget."

As a mother herself, Adams said she does feel for Valentine's family. Valentine is the only one of the two that has shown any kind of remorse for Lewis' death, she said. "I want Valentine's family to know I feel sorry for them, too," Adams said. "I realize they lost something, too."
She described Lewis as a generous and considerate woman who worked hard as a seamstress and in the food service industry throughout her life and thought nothing of pitching in to help someone in need.

While on a trip back from Idaho several years ago, Adams said she, her mother and her grandmother stopped at a roadside restaurant for something to eat. As they waited for service, Lewis realized that something had happened to the cook, and the eatery's lone waitress was trying to both cook and serve the food.

"She got up and told her, 'You take care of your tables and I'll cook the food,'" Adams said. "That was the kind of person she was. I can't express how giving and nurturing she was." She said her grandmother had boundless self-confidence and could walk into any situation and take control without being overbearing.

An avid backyard gardener, Adams said her grandmother instilled in her an appreciation for flowers and wildlife. Her Oak Street home was overrun with plants and flowers, and Adams has replanted many of Lewis' favorites in her own yard.

Although she was a loving, patient woman, Lewis was not afraid to speak her mind, Adams said."She was very real, very honest," she said. "Sometimes too honest. She told you how it was but she never told you if you didn't ask."

Adams said some of the best times with her grandmother were spent drinking "her nasty ... iced tea and eating her dry, dry spaghetti." It wasn't the food that made the time special, it was the conversation."She was just totally amazing," she said. "She was just a real person who knew life had its ups and downs and she did what she had to to get through them."

Adams and Lewis spoke nearly every day. When Adams learned she was pregnant, Lewis was the first person she told. Adams said she had concerns about motherhood since she had never had any experience with children, and discussed those concerns with her grandmother.

"The day my son was born she leaned over and said she didn't have any worries about me and my boy," she said. "And when she said that, I knew I'd be OK. I knew I would have the patience and the tolerance to show him the kind of love she showed me."