This story is a component of Loved and Lost, a state-wide media collaboration that strives to celebrate the lives of each and every New Jersey resident who died of COVID-19. To be more informed and send a call of what you enjoyed to a profile, scale dearandlostnj. com.
Elena Alvarez soft but serious, the one who may never say no to a niece or nephew and who spends hours talking to them about their lives. Her younger sister, Aurora, the jovial who never turned down an invitation, especially if it was to celebrate one of the members of her close-knit Peruvian family circle.
Aurora, cosmetologist, won the call when a member of the family circle needed to enjoy a special event. Elena, who studied nursing and cosmetology, can be counted on to help her sew Halloween costumes and costumes when her 10 nieces and nephews were children. .
“We were a small family, but we were very close,” said niece Fiorella Bardellini.
Now they cry together. The family circle lost the two sisters less than 20 days apart in April, Elena, from Hackensack, 73 and Aurora 66.
“We didn’t expect something like this to happen,” Bardellini said, “it’s a back-to-back hit. “
Elena and Aurora emigrated from Lima, Peru in the early 1980s, Elena came here with her parents and Aurora and her two siblings, Teresa and Willy, followed them temporarily with their young families, all joining their older sister, Rosa Alvarez Quiroz, who had emigrated to New Jersey more than a decade earlier.
“The stage in Peru had become critical. We had some money, but there was a shortage of sugar, water, electricity and everything at that time in Peru,” said Teresa Alvarez de Bardellini of Maywood, who arrived with her husband and 3 daughters. “So we moved in and moved here. “
They all moved to Hackensack and rebuilt their lives together.
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Elena, Teresa and Aurora, who had two children, her first task in New Jersey as a housekeeper in what is now the Hilton Hotel in Hasbrouck Heights. Rosa worked as a housework manager at the same hotel, Teresa said.
The Alvarez sisters had a story to tell about their time there that occasionally left their children, nieces and nephews in tears of laughter.
“When I heard the stories in this hotel, I told them they had a great time,” said Belissa Barra, Aurora’s daughter. “My mom was a character and she was in trouble. “
There was, for example, the moment her mother discovered an un opened bag of hot fried bird with fries and a biscuit in what gave the impression of being an empty room that she was guilty of cleaning. Aurora looked around, discovered no hint of a guest hotel and eating early, her daughter said.
A few minutes after the bird and chips, the occupant of the room came in, a footballer, with ketchup in his hand.
“I just went down to get ketchup,” all the soccer player can gather before giving the ketchup to Aurora, Barra recalls with a smile. She said, “He handed me the ketchup and said all right, you can eat it. ” “”
Elena enjoyed reading and learning new things and continued taking courses in Peru. At Hackensack, she enrolled in English categories and rarely took her nieces with her if she needed help.
“We were the ones we translated as we were the first to be informed in English,” Fiorella Bardellini said.
Aurora, who had worked as a graphic designer in Peru designing road signs, nevertheless made the decision to pursue a career in cosmetology, after graduating she got a job at a hairdresser in Hackensack, but stopped running there years later because Aurora was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, in the mid-1930s and had been on dialysis for years your daughter said.
But Aurora didn’t like to focus on her illness. She’s much more interested in living.
“You’d never think she was sick, she didn’t look sick, she didn’t act sick, she didn’t feel sorry for herself,” Barra said. “She’s the one who gives up every day, does make up and wears even when she was in the hospital, called me and said, “Bring my makeup, my hair dryer, my earrings,” because I was looking to be pretty. “
“She is a living and satisfied person, everyone’s favorite person, everyone’s favorite aunt, everyone’s favorite grandmother, everyone’s favorite friend,” Barra added.
Aurora also visited Elena, 301, who had been living in a long-term care center in Hackensack in recent years. Aurora spent hours talking to her sister as she combd her hair and painted her nails.
One day, Teresa remembers, she paid someone to dye and try Elena’s hair because Aurora wasn’t available. A few hours later, she won an angry call from Elena, who told her never to do this again, that only Aurora could touch her hair. .
“I never thought my little sisters would leave us like this, ” he said.