Parvin Roodafshan, affectionately known as Pari Joon by those close to her, died at home surrounded by family on May 20, 2024. She was 94.

She was born in 1929 in Firuzkuh, Iran. She obtained an eight-grade education before leaving school to focus on homemaking. She married her husband, Lotfolah Rafiee, at 18 and had the first of her four children at 19.

She became a single mom when her husband unexpectedly passed away when she was 34. She never remarried, instead opting to raise her kids by herself.

She had five grandchildren and helped in raising most of them too. Once her parents, Molook Amimi and Gholam Houssein Roodfashan, got older, they moved in with her and she helped take care of them until they passed.

At that point, her son Keyvan and daughter Noushin lived in Germany, and her son Kambiz and daughter Nasrin lived in the US. She moved in with Nasrin in 1994, leaving Iran for Irvine, California. She created a full, new life in the US, building strong friendships with other senior Iranian immigrants. She was active in the local Irvine senior center, took English classes, and helped to raise Nasrin's children until they moved away for college. She loved to read, talk on the phone with family and friends, sew, write, play the slot machines, and take long morning walks.

A caretaker all through her life, it was an adjustment to now be taken care of when she was diagnosed with dementia in 2021. Although her memories and abilities declined, her kindness remained.

Funeral services will be held on May 26, 2024, at 10 am at El Toro Memorial Park (25751 Trabuco Rd). Lunch will follow at 11:30 am at Hatam Restaurant (25800 Jeronimo Rd).

Parvin loved poems and would often recite poetry, so it feels fitting to celebrate her life through the words of Rumi.

"When I Die," Rumi

When I die, when my coffin is being taken out, you must never think I am missing this world…

Don't shed any tears, don't lament or feel sorry I'm not falling into a monster's abyss…

When you see my corpse is being carried don't cry for my leaving, I'm not leaving, I'm arriving at eternal love…

When you leave me in the grave, don't say goodbye, remember a grave is only a curtain for the paradise behind…

You'll only see me descending into a grave now, watch me rise, how can there be an end when the sun sets or the moon goes down…

It looks like the end, it seems like a sunset, but in reality, it is a dawn, when the grave locks you up that is when your soul is freed…

Have you ever seen a seed fallen to earth not rise with a new life, why should you doubt the rise of a seed named human…

Have you ever seen a bucket lowered into a well coming back empty, why lament for a soul when it can come back like Joseph from the well…

When for the last time you close your mouth, your words and soul will belong to the world of no place no time.