Family hopes that missing grandmother is lost after her home in Altadena is destroyed

For a few days, Miva Wheatley Friedli’s family and friends insisted that she wouldn’t be there when the Eaton Fire rips through Altadena Somewhere get lost, not at home.

The 86-year-old grandmother talks about faith and laments about her birth in Costa Rica.

She is one of 15 children, married at a 17-year-old at a civil ceremony and arrived in California in the footsteps of her older brother. She went on to raise three boys at her home on Mariposa Street in Altadena, and later remarried and later became a widow.

But in the days after the fire, the house had nothing. Her nephew Juan Gonzalez found a pile of debris and the front door was still locked.

She has Parkinson’s disease and walks with a slight tremor, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department lists her as dementia in the announcement of missing persons.

Family and friends shared photos of her on social media, hoping she could recall her name and lose it in a shelter or hospital.

Then on January 15, two days before her birthday, the dog searched and rescued the corpse and found the human remains at home and informed the family.

“I hope, pray, do everything that can find her because I can’t grasp another option,” Carol Wheatley said of her sister.

Relatives described Friedli as a devout Christian, an independent and arrogant woman who worked in the field of medicine and later in nursery.

“She always has a strong personality, but sometimes she is a very cute and caring person under the Steine’s appearance.”

Gonzalez remembers spending time with his cousins ​​at Friedli’s home.

He and his brother and cousin will pile into his uncle’s station wagon and head to downtown Los Angeles where the family will shop.

Gonzalez smiled and said, “She always buys us strawberry milk.”

He remembered her smile and warmth, how she treated him as her child, because his mother worked a lot.

He kindly said that his Aunt Miwa would take him to church on Sunday, and he remembered sleeping on a bench when he was seven or eight in those Baptist speeches.

“A lot of good times when I was young,” Gonzalez said.

The great sorrow of her death raises questions about how Friedley died in her home. Several relatives died in the fire, including Friedley’s sister, Myrin Wheatley Brown, 83.

In the morning after the house was destroyed, her adult children wore a mask through the ashes and debris of the house where the family had lived for more than 50 years.

“Our aunt is missing,” the family said of Friedley.

Myrin Wheatley Brown nodded, and her husband, Frank Brown, said: “Our dear sister is missing.”

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office still lists the human remains found by Friedli as an approximate site of unidentified Jane Doe. According to family members, DNA tests are being conducted to confirm identity.

Sheila Wheatley joined the family when she married Friedli’s nephew Victor Wheatley.

She remembers driving home a few years ago and discovering Friedli, a widow who stopped driving, walked along the steep hillside to her home in Altadena.

She stopped and gave her a ride.

“She told me, ‘No, thanks. I can use the exercises,” Sheila Whitley said.

Friedli answered the phone number and Sheila Wheatley joined Friedli’s group relatives who allowed her internal tracks to help her with payment or make a call.

Relatives checked her regularly, and Friedli became secluded in the years that followed, but she still thanked them for their help and company.

“She thanks God for help,” said Sheila Wheatley. Sheila Wheatley said her time at Friedli reminds you that you still have a chance. When visiting family members, even if they are withdrawn.

“She is a beautiful soul, very strong and very resilient,” she said.

Friedli’s sister Carol Wheatley wants people to remember her sister as mother, sibling and daughter. When Friedli moved to the United States, the two sisters lost track of each other, but reconnected a few years later and kept in touch often.

“She always quotes the Bible from the Bible, and she always finds positive words to say, trying to lift you up,” said Carol Wheatley.

Even if Carol Wheatley might say something negative, her sister will strike back: “We are so grateful to the Lord.” She is always reminding us,” Carol Wheatley said. Her faith is strong. ”