Gabriel Cornejo
February 21, 1982 ~ March 23, 2022
Gabriel Cornejo, beloved husband, father, son, and brother passed away March 23, 2022, at age 40. He was a resident of Murrieta for 10 years and worked as Service Manager at Epiroc in the city of Temecula.
His hobbies included bike riding, paddleboarding, enjoying time at the beach, watching baseball, and spending time with his family.
He was born on February 21, 1982, in Bellflower, CA to Heliodoro and Rosario Cornejo. He was married to Valerie for 19 years and was the father to Katelyn and Jayden. He was also a brother to Jesse, Carlos, Diana and uncle to nieces and nephews.
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Gabriel you will be missed dearly. Forever in our hearts.
I moved in to the neighborhood in the early 90’s. My brother and I quickly made friends with our neighbors (Gabriel/José/Jairo). Little did we all know that we would create so many memories together that it would create a tight bond for ever. We all experienced many ups and downs within our own families BUT going outside to play was our getaway. We would walk to each other’s houses and just yell out your name until you’d come out and play. “Gabriel” I shouted many times until he’d come out or until his mom would great us (she was always so nice). Sometimes we would just hang out but never a dull moment between all of us. Gabriel, to me, was someone that looked up too for many reasons. He wasn’t corny or sappy but was always real. He was adventurous, brave, funny, athletic, smart, witty…and I guess to us it helped to have him as our friend because his friendship always pushed us out of our comfort zones and in a way we all learned to not be afraid of our insecurities and thrive.
As we grew older (high school) we didn’t see each other much of the time. Life hit our family hard and my parents divorced which meant we would spend most of our time at the family business where mom could watch us. We would still hang out and play, believe or not. Once we all graduated and had girlfriends/jobs/other friends, we didn’t spend much time together but nonetheless we still had a very tight relationship emotionally. Why? Because to this day not a week or month goes by without me reminiscing some memory together or telling a story of our childhood with our friends to somebody. This is gonna be corny but we were like the Cudahy St Sandlot gang.
We have hundreds of stories, here’s one of them; we had a huge lot of land owned by the utility companies just about 3-4 houses down the block. Large enough space to place baseball, so we were playing….with a hardball one day. My brother Eddie is playing deep center field, Jose and Gabriel and some other neighborhood kids all out there aswell. I’m up to bat and I crack a high pop fly, we all stand and just stare at the ball dripping from the air and land right on the windshield of a grey Jetta. Like trained race horses, we book it out of the field and start running back home…I turn around and see my brother still hadn’t start to run so I screamed at him to snap him out of it. As I run past Gabriel’s house he is already sitting on his porch steps drinking something. I’m thinking how did he get there so fast and pour himself a beverage?!
I get home (furthest house from the bunch) and I’m wondering where’s my brother Eddie? We’ll he’s getting escorted back to our house by the owner of the Jetta!! lol luckily Grandma was “taking care” of us that day and she offered to pay for the windshield and I believe Carlos (sorry Carlos) paid the other half of the windshield. We created an experience that to this day still comes up in conversations every so often.
March 22 was my birthday and I found myself thinking of the gang while having a beer down in Puerto Nuevo. I though about Gabriel and how might him and his family be doing after many years. I often think back to our memories together and always wished we would still hang out.
Today March 25 I received a call from my brother, he said Jairo called him and had bad news. When I heard the words through the phone it was one of the first times that I have ever experience that devastating shock when one delivers this type of news to someone else.
My heart is torn for you my brother.
My deepest condolences to your family dude. I wish I would’ve made an effort to reconnect with you. I’m sure you where the same person we all loved to be with. I thank you for everything and for sharing your life with us. I can still hear your so very iconic laughter in my head and it always brings a smile to my face.
Reast easy my brother.
Uncle Gabriel I want to start off by saying how much I’ve always looked up to your sense of humor, your love for outdoors/adventure, and your borderline compulsive cleanliness. It’s impossible to reminisce on my childhood without being flooded with memories of my grandpa’s house on Cudahy St. where my 20 something year old Uncle Gabriel lived to torment us in any way he could think of. Whether it was scaring me and my brother Carlos in our fort in the middle of the night or making us dodge knives in the kitchen (all in good fun of course).
I remember wanting nothing but approval and attention from my “to cool to care” Uncle Gabriel. He always had the coolest/newest gadgets that me and my brother could admire from a distance but could never play with, don’t even think about it! Like when he was the first to get a GameBoy SP, I remember him talking all about how it was perfect to keep in his pocket for when he’s ready to take a shit! So of course my dad had to go buy my brother and I one because there was no way we were getting to play with his, classic. Then he started having kids of his own and it was payback time baby! But of course life had other plans and he moved with his family to Murrieta, and even though we all spent significantly less time together we were always able to pick up where we left off.
Now that I’m older I can add one more thing to the list of reasons to look up to my Uncle Gabriel; being an amazing father. I feel we have my Grandpa to thank for this, he set an amazing precedent to which all of his sons have all followed. All of them are such amazing dad’s that would do absolutely anything for their kids, but each with their own specific way/style of doing so. Uncle Gabriel, I see the amazing heart you had for your family, and all the hard work and time you put to bond and show them how much they meant to you. I hope to be half the father you were some day. I love you Uncle Gabriel and will keep you in my heart forever.
What an amazing family and such a proud father and sincerely kind man! It was so nice to have known Gabriel and seen the pride in his eyes watching his beautiful daughter play a masterful game she loved. We know how much he will be missed. Cornejo family, we are here for you, whatever you need. With love and prayers,