Support Charly's Final Journey to El Salvador

My name is Miguel Sanchez. I’m raising as much money as possible on behalf of my stepfather. Our family has never dealt with such a tragedy, so we are not aware of how much money we will need for funeral services and also to transport our loved one to his native country, El Salvador.

My stepfather was in my life since I was 11 years old. He did everything possible to support me and my mother. As I grew up, he taught me how to drive, he helped me get my first job, we would have cookouts, you name it. He was the male figure in my life that I didn’t have. He was the hardest worker I have ever met in my 33 years of life. He never stopped working since I met him. Even if he felt sick, he would have multiple jobs at times. He always did everything to support us and also his mother and family in El Salvador. He had a big heart and was fun to be around in gatherings. A lot of people knew him in the City Heights area as “Chaparro” (shorty). His birth name was Luis Alfonso Lopez Godinez. Family and close friends called him “Charly”. I never knew what it was to have a real father, but now I know what it feels like to lose one.

Charly grew up during El Salvador’s civil war. He had a tough childhood. He was forced by the military to serve his country as a teenager and would tell me stories that were hard to believe. He endured that part of his life and he came to the United States with a work permit to provide for his mother to build her a home. He bought his own car that he was very proud of. He worked at multiple locations all over San Diego over the years and made a lot of friends. If you ever got to know him, you knew he had a good heart. Thank you all that helped him in his hard times when he couldn’t work anymore. Even then, he made homemade flowers out of flor de izote and also other items to support his mother even to his last days, his mother still lives and we as parents know the hardest thing about life is to see our children go before us.

We will miss Charly, but never forget. He was a husband, father, grandfather, and a best friend.