Melba Hopwood's Obituary
Melba Echon Hopwood was born in Zambales, Philippines on January 11th 1949. After living in Guam, she settled in El Cajon, California, USA where she opened her bar and grill, the Mello Inn, in the 90s. The Mello Inn, a fusion of American and Filipino food, good drinks, and good times, was such a great success she had to expand to a larger location. She was an avid baseball and NASCAR fan, and kept her heart close to home with the Padres as her favorite baseball team and the El Cajon native, Jimmie Johnson, as her favorite NASCAR driver. Melba loved being outdoors and gardening as a hobby and often shared the literal fruits of her labor, pomegranates and calamansi, with church members and friends. Her generosity and dedication to the Crusaders of the Divine Church of Christ helped build churches in the Philippines and the first overseas church in California.
Beloved by all who met her, friends and family described Melba as warm, nurturing, kind, and profoundly good. She was an optimist and a bright soul who couldn’t say hippopotamus but would try, just to make her children and grandchildren laugh. Melba led a life full of love and her greatest achievement is her family. A sister to eight other siblings, Melba also had the blessing of three sons, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, with one more great-grandchild on the way. She joins her parents, Presentacion Echon and Lorenzo Echon, and her sister-in-law, Juanita Echon, at their final resting place at Greenwood Memorial on January 7th, 2021.
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