Carmella was named after her two great grandmothers Carmen Mestaz and Ella Christensen. If we look up the origin of the name Carmella, we would discover that Carmella derived from the Hebrew meaning of “vineyard”. A vineyard is a plantation of grapevines or a vineyard can also be defined a sphere of action or labor and Carmella was a graciously, beautiful unique person of action and labor which was personified in her uncanny ability to communicate. Carmella was born on June 11, 1975, at the Long Beach Naval Hospital to mother Deborah Louise Vann and father Presley Louis Vann. Her dad was stationed at the United States Marine Corps (USMC) El Toro Air Base. In 1977, Carmella’s father was attending Electronic Technical training at the USMC Training station at 29 Palms, California. While there engrossed in a colorful world of languages that surrounded her Carmella was in her absolute element, as it was discovered she possessed the unique ability to read and understand languages and in a very short period of time, then, actively speak the diction. Among her parents surprises; the family was welcomed into a Samoan community where Carmella comfortably began speaking the local Samoan dialect. Where another instance, while Carmella’s Father and friend, Gunny Bill Ford played Tennis she however, was conversing in Japanese with Ford’s wife Mitchico and their two younger daughters. When Carmella’s dad’s training orders ended in 29 Palms, the family returned to USMC El Toro Air Base. Upon returning, Carmella’s parents developed a friendship with another Marine Corps couple of which the wife Grace was of Dutch Indonesian nationality. Grace’s mother Joelsy, was fluent in a number of languages which included Dutch, French and German. One day passing through the kitchen, where Joelsy was in the process of making one of her fabulous Dutch cake desserts, it was nothing but amazing just to see this five-year-old talking away with Joelsy in German. Carmella’s parent’s service in the Marine Corps ended in 1980 and they made Tustin their home. Carmella and her parents were welcomed into a fairly sizable Mexican family and in no time at all, Carmella was comfortably speaking Spanish with the family and especially Olga, the most senior mother. In time, Carmella attended Columbus Tustin Middle school where she enrolled in her first formal language class of Spanish. It made sense, Española was her true second language as her mother was of Spanish decent. By the time Carmella entered Tustin High School she was totally fluent in Spanish and it payed off well for her with not only obtaining her first job, with the Tustin Recreation Department, but it was a job that ended up impacted so many young Spanish children’s lives. Carmella was assigned to Frontier Park and at the time, it was nothing more than an unorganized drop-off your kid spot. But due to her organization, her imagination, her truly caring heart, and the command she had of the Spanish language, Carmella turned the park into a bustling, exciting place where the kids were excited to come to every day. The command she had of the Spanish language was also very evident during one of her Miss Tustin performances where she presented an extremely heart-warming dedication to her “Na-Na” Olga in Spanish. Carmella was the first Black Miss Tustin and she was also the youngest Miss Tustin at the age of 16. From the Miss Tustin Pageant, Carmella continued on and entered and won two more Beauty Pageants. She won Miss Coastal Cities Pageant and Miss Greater Long Beach Pageant. At that time, both of the pageants were at a level where all of the contestants were older than 17 year old Carmella, but because of Carmella’s knowledge, confidence, poise and her unique ability to blend in her Spanish charm helped her to excel well above everyone else and to victory. Carmella’s pageant run came to an abrupt end when her sponsoring manager disappeared with all of her prizes and rewards after the Miss Greater Long Beach pageant. Carmella was able to recover a very small percentage of the rewards due to her, but that very dark cloud actually had a silver lining to it. With foresight beyond the pageantries she knew her true passion always led with her gift for communication, word, where Carmella re-focused her full attention of fulfilling her middle school dream and goal of graduating from UCI. While studying, determined she worked two jobs and even through sickness would take a city bus to get to school, Carmella’s strength and dedication to graduate from UCI was repeatedly proven. Graduating from UCI was the main highlight of Carmella’s college career, but the close second has got to be her first article that was published in the UCI school paper. This was a premier milestone for Carmella since she was an English major and not a UCI Journal student and yet her work was accepted.   Carmella’s journalistic talents at UCI was only the beginning of a very fulfilling career starting as a freelance writer that set the foundation for fruitful employment as a Copy Editor, Copywriter and Proofreader. Carmella’s professional career started as a Copywriter/Proofreader at CME in 2000. Carmella was also employed as an editor, writer and proofreader for a number of companies and corporations of the likes of ThomasARTS LLC, Stec, HGST a Western Digital Brand, Tarbell Realtors, Entrepreneur Magazine, Landscape Communication Inc., Vertis, Yellow Shoes Professional Services. A career high-point happened when she was hired by Disney as a professional Copy Editor, Copywriter and Proofreader. Upon discovering her unique talents she was assigned also as the resident Spanish Copywriter, Editor, and Proofreader. In true Carmella style she attained a wonderful second career high point when hired while pregnant at Garage Team Mazda where she worked for four years. Carmella’s journalistic career ended with Garage Team Mazda as a Senior Proofreader on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 where she was killed in a tragic car accident. George Washington Carver once said… “How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong, because someday in your life you will have been all of these” One cannot think of a better way of summing up Carmella’s life than the quote above. George Washington Carver was a great man because of the deep faith he relied upon and he lived it and shared it with the world that surround him and Carmella was a great woman because of the deep faith she relied upon and she lived it and shared it all who were fortunate enough to be around her.