My beloved mother Elena Engracia Ramos Bernal passed away on July 27th, 2024, in Manhattan, New York. She was 98 years old and was born in Lima, Peru on August 13th,1925. The daughter of Julio and Rosario Ramos.

At the age of 5 her mother asked her if she had taken any sugar from the canister. She denied it even though all her lips were full of sugar. This told me she was a little naughty and my kind of gal. She grew up in a town that was called the Port of Eten in the north of Peru. She had known my father Carlos Alberto Diaz Ortigas since they were kids. They grew up and married and moved to Lima.

Both my parents wanted to come to the United States and so they started the documentation and all of us were legally here in Manhattan in 1962. My mother was a great dancer, and a fantastic cook. I felt I lived with either Julia Child or Martha Stewart depending on the day. She was generous and always helped someone. She became the favorite babysitter on West 81 Street. How she maintained a spotless apartment with 3 kids, a dog and babysitting 5 children and took care of a husband is beyond me!

She was an amazing woman that moved to a new country with only a third-grade education, who was an incredibly intelligent and classy. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to know how much she was loved by neighbors, parents, doctors, nurses, and staff. In fact, she was called “Mama Diaz” at the nursing home. Now “Mama Diaz” is joyfully dancing up a storm in heaven.