Joann Guerrero Siobal

Joann Guerrero Siobal, aged 61, passed away on August 21, 2016 at her home in San Francisco, after a battle with cancer. Joann was born on April 11, 1955 at Oak Knoll Naval hospital in Oakland, California, the eldest of Hazel Crane Guerrero and Jose Lizama Guerrero’s four daughters. As an outgoing youth and San Francisco resident for most of her life, Joann made and kept many lifelong friends from middle school at A.P. Giannini. Though her military family moved several times throughout her childhood, she eventually graduated from Lincoln High School and attended college at U.C. Berkeley on a full, 4-year scholarship. Joann remained very close with her childhood friends throughout her life. Joann met Mark Siobal on New Year’s Eve 1973 during her freshman year at Cal. They were married four years later on 7/7/77 and had their first son, Marcus Matthew, two years later. Joann attended nursing school at City College of San Francisco and was 7 months pregnant with her daughter, Kemi Moseko, when she graduated in 1983. Their youngest son, Lucas Gabriel, was born in 1988. Joann loved her family deeply and was a wonderful wife and mother. She was loving, kind, caring, thoughtful, generous, encouraging and understanding. She always considered the needs of her family and would visit Lucas at work to give him underwear she just purchased on sale, choose a fresh bouquet of flowers from the farmer’s market for Kemi and pick up a super taco and a burrito for Matt and Mark on her way home. She would often be the first person her children would come to for advice and always lent a sympathetic ear. She had a passion for discovering new places and sharing them with the people she loved. Joann and family were fortunate to have shared many travel adventures to places like Camp Mather, Death Valley, New York, Alaska, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, and various countries in Europe and South America. Joann was a homecare nurse before being hired on as a medical-surgical nurse at San Francisco General Hospital in 1985. In the early 1990s, Joann transitioned to the trauma-surgical Intensive Care Unit where she worked 12-hour night shifts for nearly two decades. Throughout those years she cared for many critically ill patients but created countless fond memories with her colleagues and formed many lasting friendships. She was also a clinical nursing instructor at City College of San Francisco, her nursing alma mater, and, most recently, the acting manager of the Nurse Advice Line for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Joann was forced to forego bedside care when her health declined as a result of an autoimmune liver deficiency, which required a liver transplant in October 2012. Joann not only survived her liver transplant, she thrived. She resumed her healthy lifestyle, her love of fitness and her FitBit, the outdoors and nature. She cooked and ate, hiked and explored. In the Spring of 2015, Joann, Mark and a group of dear friends hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back, an accomplishment of which Joann was immensely proud and an experience that she cherished. Joann took great pride in her home and loved to decorate it according to the season or holiday. She loved to cook and share meals with her loved ones, often hosting dinners, parties and barbeques for birthdays, holidays or just a plain old Wednesday. Joann always kept up with the latest trends, but was a smart shopper who loved a good deal. She loved going to “the show” with Mark to eat popcorn and a hotdog while watching the latest releases. She loved to dance to great music, but especially to James Brown. Joann surrounded herself with things she loved and appreciated: family, friends, plants, flowers, music, art, laughter, jokes…and shoes! Words cannot express the emptiness Joann’s passing leaves in the lives of her loved ones, but the memory of her kind heart, generous spirit and fierce love for her family and friends will always remain. Joann is survived by her sisters, Julie Watanabe and Jodee Lovingood; her husband, Mark; children, Matt, Kemi and Lucas; and a multitude of loving family members and friends.

Joann Guerrero Siobal

April 11, 1955 - August 21, 2016