Annette T. Abril

Annette T. Abril, age 72, passed away on Thursday, April 13, 2023. She was born on October 13, 1950, in Phoenix, Arizona, to Ignacio F. Madrid and Alicia L. Reina.

Annette came from a large family of ten that included five brothers and four sisters. She grew up in the Marcos De Niza neighborhood in Phoenix where she had many friends and talked about all the fun, they had playing kick the can, hide in seek, and the fun pranks her, and her friends would pull on their neighbors.

As a teenager Annette worked at El Rey Café in Phoenix helping her mom who was the cook at the restaurant. Annette shared many stories from her experience working at the restaurant and one of them was how she hid her tip money in her shoes to save up enough money to buy a Beatles shirt. She loved Paul McCartney and the Beatles!

She met her husband Tom Abril while she was riding her bike by the old Phoenix Municipal Stadium on First street and Mohave. They fell in love and were married in 1966.

Annette worked for Motorola for several years. Later, she became a homemaker and took care of her grandchildren and her great grandchildren. Annette absolutely loved life through simple pleasures like spending time with her family, playing her favorite card game (Thirty-One), shopping, and going on vacations. Her favorite place to visit was San Diego and going to eat at her favorite restaurant Old Town Mexican Café. In her later years, she loved going to Lone Butte Casino and would have to be convinced to come home.

Annette was the life of the party and loved making others laugh and pulling pranks. Her favorite holiday very well could have been April Fool’s Day in which she fooled most of us at least once. In our eyes she was exceptionally the best cook especially her beef green chile, enchiladas, albondigas soup and tamales.

She was very artistic, creative, and loved to decorate her home, mostly for Halloween and Christmas. During the holidays, her home was the best decorated home on the block. She was not a big sports fan but in the last years of her life she became a huge Phoenix Suns fan watching every game.

She was exceedingly compassionate, generous, thoughtful, and genuinely wanted the absolute best for her family. Annette’s love for her family was apparent in her constant devotion to them. The loss of Annette has left a void in our hearts, and she will be dearly missed.

Annette is survived by her loving husband of 56 years, Tom Abril, their daughters Dorina Abril and Carmela Abril, six grand-children and twenty-three great-grandchildren, her sisters Sylvia Navarro, Christina Madrid, Camille (Gerard) Ingallina, brothers Michael Madrid and Leonard (Helen) Madrid. Annette was preceded in death by her father Ignacio F. Madrid, mother Alicia L. Reina, sister Lucinda Tallabas, brothers Ignacio (Nachito) Madrid Jr., George Madrid, and Johnny Espinosa.

Funeral service will be held on April 28, 2023 at 10 AM at Whitney & Murphy Funeral Home, 4800 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix.