Giving thanks for what life gave him

The handwritten letter was dated Nov. 20 and it spoke of love.

A love for family. The writer's love for his adopted city. His love of life.

"At my age of 86 I have had the fortune of living a full life of satisfaction, well being and success. Thanks to God, He permitted me to live up until now in this town so loved by us," he wrote.

The letter struck me for its heartfelt sentiments.

The writer asked for nothing but instead, a few days before Thanksgiving, gave thanks for what life gave him.

Rarely do I receive letters filled with genuine appreciation like this.

Carlos Mares Delgado, thankfully added his phone number and address.

I went to his midtown home, just west of Reid Park. It's a typical Tucson home built in the post-World War II housing boom.

Delgado gently ushered me inside a home where living and dining room walls are covered with family pictures and religious images.

It's a kind of home frequently found in Tucson's Mexican neighborhoods.

It's a home in which he and Sara Bañuelos Delgado, his late wife of 60 years, raised their six children for more than 40 years. Since her death in January, Delgado lives with his youngest son.

Delgado's eyes well up with the memories of his wife, but I want to know his story. Delgado is happy to talk.

He was born in Guanajuato but spent his youth in Mexico City in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. His father, whose picture he showed me, was an ally of Sonoran-born Gen. Álvaro Obregón, a Revolution general and later president.

When Delgado was a teenager, he came to the United States as a bracero worker during World War II. He toiled alongside other braceros for three years on the railroads in Utah.

After the war Delgado returned to Mexico.

Several years after the war ended in 1945, Delgado and his wife moved to Nogales, Sonora.

He began his long career as a waiter, first at La Caverna and later at the Hotel Fray Marcos de Niza, two of Nogales' popular gathering spots at that time.

Delgado still gets excited talking about those days. He met many famous people while waiting on tables or working as head waiter.

Actress Ava Gardner and war hero Audie Murphy. Mexican singers Lola Beltrán, Javier Solís and Trio Los Panchos. There were others.

In Nogales, during the 1950s, the Delgados found tranquility, happiness and a comfortable life, he said. But as the children came and grew, the Delgados decided to leave for Tucson.

"I wanted to come for my children," he said. "To get them a good education."

He immigrated in 1962 and the family came a year later. Delgado found work as a waiter at the Old Pueblo Club, Casa Molina, Tack Room and the Three Sovereigns Cliff House.

In addition, the Delgados opened a small downtown restaurant on South Scott Avenue near Broadway, the site of the former Little Poca Cosa. Judges and defendants ate Sara Delgado's food at the Delgados' Café Sonora.

"My wife was the grand cook," he said as he eyes began to moisten again. "She made the best turtle soup."

They worked hard and long, making the best lives possible for their children who attended Robison Elementary School, Mansfeld Middle School and Tucson High School. He coached soccer at Reid Park.

"I have much to be grateful for," Delgado said.

Throughout our conversation at the dining table, where a tapestry of the Last Supper hangs on the wall, he repeatedly expressed his gratitude - for his wife, his children, his community.

He expressed it in his letter.

"From the beginning this town impressed me with its cleanliness, tranquility and its friendly people," he wrote.

Delgado said he has only one regret. He wished he had learned to type. He said he has more stories in him.

"I would have written several books of my life," he said.

Books are good, I told him. But more important, I added, he wrote a letter.