Reynalda Mendoza Saba

Reynalda Mendoza Saba
March 3, 1936 – October 22, 2026
Reynalda Mendoza “Ditse” Saba, 90, peacefully went to be with the Lord on October 22, 2026, at home, surrounded by her family.
In her final days, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren did not simply visit. They kept vigil at her side, holding her hands, caressing her hair, and telling her over and over “thank you” and “I love you.” It was a fitting farewell for a woman who spent her whole life making sure the people she loved were never alone.
Ditse was born in San Mateo, Rizal, Philippines, to Julio and Cristina Mendoza, and grew up during the hardship of the Japanese occupation. Known all her life as Ditse, the name given to the second-eldest daughter, she lived up to it early. She left school after the third grade to help support her family and raise her younger siblings, taking whatever work she could find: making shoes, harvesting rice, sewing, and catching frogs.
At 25, she married Agustin Saba, and together they had seven children. They lost their son Hector in infancy. When Agustin passed away in 1973, Ditse was a 37-year-old widow with six children to raise. She opened a carinderia, a small neighborhood eatery, that supported her children and fed and helped many relatives and neighbors in her community.
In December 1981, petitioned by her mother, Ditse immigrated to the United States with her eldest son. Her four youngest children followed in 1984, while her son Rolando remained in the Philippines. She worked several jobs, but it was her cooking people remembered. She later stopped working outside the home to care for her mother and help raise her grandchildren, and from her home she built a business as a seamstress and caterer.
It is undisputed that she was the best cook in the family. Her leche flan and lumpia were world-famous, and her grandchildren grew up at her side in the kitchen. She let them crack the eggs for the flan and patiently fished out every bit of shell without a word. She let them separate the lumpia wrappers with small, clumsy hands, never minding how many they tore. She was simply happy to have them with her.
As her children started families of their own, Ditse helped raise many of her grandchildren, giving them her days, her years, and her full attention. To them she was Lola Ding. The grandchildren competed over whose turn it was to sleep over at Lola Ding’s. Those nights meant lying close to her as she taught them to read and write Tagalog from magazines sent from the Philippines, praying together before bed, and learning to make the sign of the cross in Tagalog. She patted (“tapik”) them gently to sleep, and they returned the favor by softly scratching her palm until she drifted off. Mornings meant pandesal with butter and sugar, dipped in her coffee. They were never allowed to drink the coffee itself, though. It would keep them from growing tall, she warned.
Lola Ding was always put together, from her hair and makeup to her blouse, her shoes and her painted nails. She taught by example: hard work, selflessness, the power of prayer, the peace of going to church, respect for others and respect for yourself. Above all, she taught that family is everything.
Her instinct to care for her family never faded. Years later, when her granddaughter Ysabel, already a mother and pregnant with Mila, mentioned at a family party that she wasn’t feeling well, Lola Ding, frail and with limited mobility, insisted on getting up to rub her belly with an old remedy, hoping to bring her some relief. It did not matter how grown her grandchildren were. To her, they were still hers to take care of.
Ditse never asked for anything in return for her time and sacrifice. What she received was a family that loved her deeply, right up to her very last breath. That love is her legacy, and it lives on in all of them.
Ditse was preceded in death by her husband, Agustin Saba; her sons, Hector and Rolando Saba; her daughter-in-law, Noemi; her parents, Julio and Cristina Mendoza; and her siblings, Milagros Lagatuz, Cornelia Maranan, Eulogio Mendoza and Julio Mendoza, Jr.
She is survived by her children, Arnel Saba (Edwina), Agustin Saba (Maria Eleanor), Joseph Saba (Maria Lourdes), Maria Lourdes Gamboa (Ismael) and Maria Rosalinda Cranfill (Gregory); her grandchildren, Eve White (Kyle), June Saba, Joie Saba, Arnel Saba Jr., Crisanto Saba, Rolando Saba Jr. (Marielle), Sarah Jane Saba, Josephine Saba (Lenmore), Paolo Saba (Percy), Jasmine Cintron (Grayton), Selinna Ricaport (Rodney), Andrea Chen, Maria Elisha Saba, Yssa Saba, Hector Saba, Rohan Saba, Aubrey Gayle Balido (Jodi), Ysabel Sympson (Christopher), Noreyn Lou Hockstedler (Daniel), Rafael Gamboa, Dannilyn Sylvester (Hunter) and Daphne Fructuoso (Enzo); her 28 great-grandchildren, Kensington, Jack, Jayro, Noemi, Lesedrey, Leandre, Myca, Jaymriel, Sofia Ali, Maricar, Isaiah, Elaina, Jon, Joel, Maria Christiana, Nora Belle, Eliana Rey, Jethro, Dax, Jasher, Jodi Jr., Alyssandra, Nathaniel, Camila Belle, Juliana, Charles, Santino and Elijah; and her siblings, Conrado Mendoza, Trinidad Ralsten and Zenaida Abdon.
A wake and viewing will be held at Amory Funeral Home, 410 Grafton Dr, Yorktown, VA 23692, on Thursday, October 29, 2026, from 4:00 p.m. to midnight, and Friday, October 30, from 5:00 p.m. to midnight. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated by Fr. George Prado on Saturday, October 31, at 10:00 a.m. at St. Jerome Catholic Church, 116 Denbigh Blvd, Newport News, VA 23608. Interment will follow immediately at Peninsula Memorial Park, 12750 Warwick Blvd, Newport News, VA 23606.