Jerry Anthony Mejia

Jerry Anthony Mejia left this world the way he came into it: on his own terms, and profoundly beloved. He fought through a turbulent birth and childhood asthma to become a gymnast at Eastwood High School, graduating in 2009 before enlisting in the United States Navy. He served as a Senior Hospital Corpsman, helping ease others’ suffering, even as he underwent chemotherapy after his own cancer diagnosis in 2013. Though that illness claimed one of his lungs, he persisted hungrily toward life. Jerry chased every opportunity to hike, climb, camp, snowboard and explore the great rocks of Yosemite, Mammoth, Moab and the Vermillion Cliffs, with his dearest friends and partners-in-crime in tow. He jumped from planes, once ran with bulls and fished the deep seas of the Atlantic Ocean. In 2017, he took to the driver’s seat of a 1978 GMC Van Dura to experience the #VanLife, tending bar in San Diego while planning his next adventures. He hit the open road one last time in April 2020 with his soul mate, Christina, and German Shepherd, Rosy Sunflower, by his side. Together, they logged over 14,000 miles, from California to Texas, on up to New Mexico, across the Midwest and Northeast, all the way up through Maine toward the Canadian border. Along the way, Jerry discovered a passion for painting, creating and sharing his art as a parting gift to the world he loved so well. Jerry returned home to El Paso in November and on the evening of November 24, he drew his last breath, having fully lived every hour of his too-brief time on earth. He is survived by the legions who loved him: his parents and younger siblings, his brilliant daughter and nephews, the countless co-conspirators who helped keep his fire burning and the fiancée who rode with him to the very end. He is survived by many who love him and his brother Dyllan N. Mejia, Sister Briana Mejia and daughter Kimberly Mejia. Due to COVID-19, we will not be having any services. Services entrusted to Sunset Funeral Home-West.