I have worked with Silvia for the past seven months. She found me and hired me for a small project in June and it turned into several projects, speaking every day — sometimes multiple times a day, countless zoom calls and publishing a book together this past October. We shared the same level of passion and excitement about our project work. Silvia would often say, “Yahoo!” when we accomplished something and “Julia, you are brilliant.” She even said a few times, “Julia, you and I think just alike,” when talking about similar wild ideas. I took that as one of the highest compliments. Silvia was a visionary. She had incredible ideas and she had such passion and eloquence behind her words and intentions. She was a force to be reckoned with.

She made me feel like no other. She always made sure to show her utmost gratitude and appreciation for me and my work. Our working relationship quickly and easily turned personal and Silvia and I would speak for hours sometimes in the evenings or weekends. She was a great ear to listen and always gave me sound and loving advice.  She could make me laugh so hard with her sarcasm. She kept that humor and sarcasm even when she was feeling so ill and dealing with so much unimaginable health and life issues. She would tell us of some of the horrible conditions she was facing, but do it in an outer space background on a Zoom call, with a touch of sarcasm. She couldn't help but make you smile somehow. She was special  and became very dear to me in a short amount of time. I miss her voice.  I miss her stern no BS attitude. I miss her smile. I miss her colorful stories. I miss her.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  Maya Angelou was right on. I will never in my life forget how Silvia made me feel — truly like no other.

— Julia Maldonado