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The promise
When business becomes curative
Adriana Pascua wasn't eating. She didn't have much of an appetite from the chemotherapy, and was deep in thought. "What are you thinking about?" asked her husband Erwin Pascua. "If anything happens to me," Adriana said, "You should just go for it. You should try to fulfill our dream for our children."
That dream was to own a franchise. Pascua, in particular, had wanted his own business, to be his own boss and to provide for his family. But the only thing he wanted at that point was for his wife to recover from cancer. So he dismissed the idea, and told her not to think that way, especially because the chemotherapy appeared to be working.
Erwin Pascua honors his wife's memory by living their dream for their two daughters.
Pascua met Adriana in 1996. He made a last-minute trip to Las Vegas with his friends for the Labor Day weekend, and one night they stood in line to get into Club Rio, a popular spot on Flamingo Road.
Adriana got in line behind them. They talked. That night they danced. Pascua asked for her number, but she refused, telling him his Southern California home was too far, an hour away, from her own. He persisted, and she finally agreed just as a waitress walked past. Pascua borrowed a napkin and a pen, and wrote down the number.
Pascua called when he returned home. A man answered. He had the wrong number. Pascua crumpled the paper and tossed it aside.
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After his wife, Adriana died of breast cancer in 2006, Erwin Pascua bought and opened a zpizza franchise to support their two children. |
He thought better of it later that night and wondered whether he dialed wrong. He called back. This time Adriana answered. The two married three years later.
"I told her that this was why I think we were meant for each other," Pascua said. "She told me I was wrong, that I made up that story. She never believed me."
When the couple returned home from the hospital in late July 2006 with their second daughter, Julissa, Adriana's neck hurt. She thought it was just another post-pregnancy symptom. But it kept getting worse. Then her neck began to swell.
A few weeks later, the hospital called and asked her to come in. She told Pascua to stay home with the baby. When she returned, she started crying. Breast cancer.
The general prognosis for breast cancer survival is good, comparatively speaking. Yet Adriana was just 32, and while diagnoses for someone her age are rare, when they do happen, the cancer can be aggressive. She was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer, with two lumps in her left breast and one in her right. It had also metastasized and spread into her spine, bones and lymph nodes.
Still, Adriana was positive and upbeat, always looking on the bright side, toward the future. "She somehow believed she was going to survive it, because in her heart, God wouldn't let her bring a baby into the world, only to take her away," Pascua said. "She said, 'I'm going to survive this. I'm going to look back at this.' She was always that way."
Adriana's condition worsened. On July 22, 2006, at the urging of Adriana's parents, Pascua called a priest to administer Adriana's last rites.
"Those were dark times for me," Pascua said. He had lost his wife of seven years, and was left to raise two daughters by himself.
Pascua was working on the computer one night a couple of weeks later when he recalled the earlier conversation with his wife, when she asked him to fulfill their dream. He decided to go for it.
Pascua, who was on leave from his job as a manager in UPS's technology department, began to look at franchising. He called several restaurant franchises, including zpizza, the California-based franchise that has been growing rapidly around the country. He had tried the pizza once and was impressed.
It was the only concept to call him back. Pascua applied and was accepted. He was offered an existing store, five minutes from his house in Chino Hills that had been open 10 months. He agreed, and took over in January 2008.
The process turned out to be cathartic. "It kept my mind occupied," Pascua said. "It gave me some life, and some energy in front of the kids. I was so concerned about how I would act in front of the kids because I miss Adriana so much. It's hard for me to function. That kept me alive."
He has also dedicated his business to helping others. Pascua donated the proceeds from a fund raiser to Max's Lemonade Stand, a nonprofit started by a California boy whose mother's best friend died from breast cancer. Pascua also donates a percentage of proceeds from his store to fund breast cancer research, and he plans to host a fund raiser each October, the month of his wife's birthday. Pascua is due to open a second store, 40 minutes away in Redlands, California.
In the meantime, his daughters love the business. Alexandrea helps in the kitchens whenever they stop by, and she once told her teacher she one day wants to own several zpizza locations.
"I just feel that, the way things are happening, Adriana is guiding me," Pascua said. "Somehow, I'm not that scared. I'm taking this risk, but I'm not afraid. I truly believe that I'm going to be OK. I truly believe that Adriana is there for me. It's all for our two girls."
