Valentino Alvero was the ‘life of any party’

Valentino Alvero is being remembered for his love of ballroom dancing, community and his family.

Alvero, 68, was also the “life of any party,” his family wrote in a statement, Monday, Jan. 23.

“While this is not the news we hoped, the unbearable unknown is over. Thank you to those who shared + reached out,” Karmel Kwan, his niece,  wrote on Twitter. “Take care of each other + may our weary hearts find peace.”

Alvero was a Filipino American, according to the Philippine consulate general in Los Angeles.

“He was a loving father, a dedicated son and brother, a grandfather who loved his three nieces and nephews like his own children.” read the family’s statement.

“Please remember that Valentino is more than just a headline or a news story,” the statement continued. “He loved people and hearing about their lives and, in return, he shared his own stories with so much gusto and enthusiasm that you couldn’t help but listen and laugh along with him.”

He was also a devout Catholic, the Alvero family said. They called it a “great travesty” that he didn’t receive his last rites, a sacrament administered before death.

“Our family would like to request all priests and Catholics to pray for him by name, Valentino Marcos Alvero,” the family wrote. “He was a faithful servant of God and we know that he would want the world to lift his family in prayer more than anything.”

A friend, Bobby Escoto, wrote on Facebook that Alvero “loved music and dancing” and was “always smiling.”

The family also called out the “vicious cycle” of mass shootings, saying, “We became unwilling members of a community who has to mourn the loss of our loved ones due to gun violence.”

“We hope that he danced to his heart’s content until the very end and hope that he is now dancing in heaven,” they wrote.

Source: Orange County Register