juan was only 42 years old when he died. he left selena widowed with these two small kids to raise in the bronx and she started working six days a week. she redoubled her efforts to get her kids fully fluent in english even though they had grown up in a spanish-speaking home with a mono lingual dad. she had been working as a phone operator in the bronx but she put herself through school. she got her licensed practical nurse certification and moved up to a better job that paid better. she got a job as a nurse in a methadone clinic the bronx and she raised her kids. she saved enough and finagled enough to get her kids into good catholic schools. she saved enough for the extravagant purchase of a complete set of encyclopedias which they kept in their apartment. people who grew up with them in that housing project in the bronx say selena and her kids were famous for those encyclopedias and she d help the kids do their home work with her every night sitting at the kitchen table all together