Reverend Maria Isabel Santiviago is one of the kindest and most joyous people I know. I met her in 2009 at St. George's Church when I was teaching nutrition and health workshops, and on my first day at St. George's Soup Kitchen I had a learning station set up during lunch and she walked by and asked if I could stay afterward and work with the community of people from St. Ann's Church for the Deaf. At the time she was the Vicar in charge of that group, and though she is now retired, she still works tirelessly with the deaf and deaf-blind community, and she also is always reaching out to help anyone in need if she has any way to help them.
When we first met on that first day, I stayed after the lunch and worked with the group from St. Ann's, sharing the information I had shared with others earlier while Vicar Maria translated in sign language. We continued to talk and work together with the group of the deaf each week that I was there, and eventually we planned a full eight week workshop series. It took time and effort on both our parts, because there were some technical terms that needed to be explained that were complicated to translate into sign language and I also tend to be someone who is very verbal, and having learned to read before I was in elementary school and being an avid reader and lover of words ever since, my vocabulary is very large. It took me some time to get used to the rhythm of having to wait and sometimes simplify my thoughts so they could be more easily translated and understood, and the experience made me me a much better teacher through the process. I treasure the memories of that time and our work together, both for how much fun we had and also how much I learned from working with St. Ann's and Vicar Maria. The newsletter for the organization I was working with ended up writing a highlight about the work we were doing with the group because for some reason, though they had been teaching nutrition education for more than 40 years throughout New York State, no one had ever worked with the deaf community. They were so excited by our classes, and I couldn't really understand why. We were just doing what we could for a group that needed our help and consideration and though I was happy that we were being highlighted I couldn't figure out why no one from the organization had ever worked with the deaf community in that way before. I know now that what we did was extraordinary because since that time I have had similar experiences and in order to be able to reach into a person's life with information about nutrition can make an enormous impact not only on their health and well being but for their family and their friends and their community. But we would not have been able to do what we did without Vicar Maria first asking and then following up and doing the work that it took to make sure it happened.
I stayed in touch with her after she retired, and went to visit with her after she had started volunteering with a church on Manhattan's Upper West Side in Washington Heights. She had been telling me about some of the challenges they were facing there, and one day we made an appointment to meet there. It was a beautiful church and she introduced me to the Priest in Charge, a wonderful, kind, well educated and knowledgeable man who cares deeply about the community he serves and believes in treating all people with dignity and respect and love. Recently, though we have not had a chance to visit with each other due to all of the challenges and difficulties due to the current health crisis, over these past months she has been sending me the daily messages from the Priest in Charge, deeply meaningful and thoughtful scripturally based words of encouragement and hope that also give us things to ponder and reflect on to help us in our own faith and spiritual journeys. I realized just the other day that though I haven't been able to attend church in person myself for these past many months, I was somehow sustained and able to continue to do the work that God has called me to and asked me to do in the community, and it is in great part due to the faithfulness of Vicar Maria in continuing to reach out to me during this time of crisis and help me be connected to the congregation where she is serving rhgouth her own messages and those of the Priest in Charge.
During the time that I have known her, I have learned a bit about her life and I know that it has not been an easy one. But to see her and speak with her, there is such great joy and fun that she shares, and such wisdom that comes from a clear heart and mind. She is humble too, not ever self seeking, always seeing others as being deserving of respect and love. She has the heart of a woman who lives with the love of God every day of her life, and her heart is one that is true.
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
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