Emma Gonzalez
Staff Writer
The University held a celebration of life ceremony for assistant professor and law librarian Jennifer Argueta, who died Aug. 17 in a car accident.
About 50 community members remembered Ms. Argueta for her warm, quiet, comforting and kind soul.
The service included family, friends and colleagues, who knew Ms. Argueta in both personal and professional settings.
“She’d always been the woman I had been looking for when I was a young man,” said Raymundo Argueta, Ms. Argueta’s husband. “Being able to be a part of my wife’s life in any way was so perfect for me.”
“She always reminded me that no matter what, I have to do my best to see the good in everything, even though this world forgets how to treat each other with kindness and respect, ” Raymundo Argueta added.
Ms. Argueta was persistent in her career. She worked closely with the law school students and assisted in research and database concerns.
“I knew her primarily in a professional role – she was an excellent supervisor,” Kenneth Rudolf, retired director of the law library, said. “She dealt really well with her staff. She was a good trainer, and yet she did it without drama and was able to bring people along and do it very gently and nicely.”
Friends and loved ones wrote their favorite memory of Ms. Argueta on cards to be handed back to the family.
Rudolf shared a story about Ms. Argueta’s favorite birthday tradition.
Ms. Argueta was born on March 14, 1982, which happens to fall on Pi Day. While colleagues would eat pie on the occasion, Ms. Argueta would take the day off to eat cake.
When someone needed a shoulder to lean on, Ms. Argueta was that shoulder. When someone needed their problems to be heard, Ms. Argueta was that listening ear.
“In a difficult time, I think of her eyes, because every time she looked at me, it’s the kind of understanding look,” said Amy Jiang, interim co-dean of libraries and learning common. “It’s a very touching moment. You feel like she knows what you’re thinking.”
Jiang, who spoke at the ceremony, said the news about Ms. Argueta’s death hit her hard when she received the call.
Ms. Argueta was like an older sister to Jiang and understood her with such grace,” Jiang said. Jiang would open up to her about her own children asking for advice.
“She’s an older sister, and so she had her sister, and then for me I have two daughters,” Jiang said. “We laugh about the experience we sometimes went through.”
Speakers said Ms. Argueta cared deeply about others and strived to help those around her.
“The one thing I want other people to learn that my wife taught is to stop treating people in a level that you presume,” Raymundo Argueta said. “She never saw anybody the way they were, she waited until their actions determined their personality.”
Ms. Argueta was family-oriented and was driven by supporting her loved ones.
“She was just a very grounded person, and I can see that she was so rooted in her family and community,” said Karen Beavers, librarian, and research and instructional professor. “There’s just sort of a groundedness, … a steadiness.”
There are different lessons and meaningful experiences that people who knew Ms. Argueta will carry forever.
Ms. Argueta had a light that lit up an entire room, her friends and relatives said.
Her gentle spirit was truly unique in the way she carried herself through the span of her life, they said.
As candles were lit one by one in front of a picture of Ms. Argueta smiling in a garden, an overwhelming amount of comfort filled the room by people who loved her most.
“She was the beauty, and I was her beast,” Raymundo Argueta said. “Because of the way she was, she really asked me to let my demons out. She loved me and took care of me. She took care of our children, she took care of everybody.”
Emma Gonzalez can be reached at emma.gonzalez@laverne.edu.
Emma Gonzalez is a junior communications major with a concentration in public relations and a minor in marketing, and a staff writer for the Campus Times. Her interests include community involvement, art, traveling and writing. Emma’s long-term career objective revolves around working for a nonprofit organization that is passionate about helping a target group of individuals. Follow her on Handshake.
