An Evanston mom of two died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, just weeks before she was to see her oldest son graduate from Evanston Township High School, her own alma mater.
Mary “Cherry” Santiago, 44, was a big Cubs and Bulls fan who would visit her parents’ graves in Niles every Sunday “to talk with her dad,” said her best friend, Kymberly Thompson. They met as ETHS freshmen and have been friends ever since.
But more than anything else, Santiago loved being a mom to her two sons: Alexander, 18, and Aiden, 11, Thompson said.
“She was an absolutely devoted mother,” said Thompson. Santiago volunteered at her boys’ schools and loved feeding them and all of their friends at her house.
“She’s everyone’s mom,” Thompson said, calling Santiago “definitely the pizza-buyer, the chicken-fryer, the food-getter” for whoever was around.
Santiago and Thompson became best friends after realizing that their mothers, both Filipino, talked on the bus every day for years on the way to work in Morton Grove, Thompson said. Both daughters grew up in Evanston and attended ETHS.
Thompson moved to Nashville about 10 years ago, and she was looking forward to her longtime friend’s first visit to Tennessee later this year.
Instead, Thompson said, Santiago was exposed to someone who had the virus on April 11. She started to get sick April 27, and was admitted to Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview on May 6 — the last day she saw her sons.
“Her thing was, I just need to be home for Mother’s Day,” Thompson said.
Instead, her sons talked to her on speakerphone in her final hours.
She was sedated but “her heart rate when up” when she heard her boys’ voices, Thompson said.
“She knew it,” she said. “She got excited when she heard her kids.”
Santiago’s cousin, Tish de Leon of South Elgin, said she remembered her cousin as “always the life of the party.”
“Cherry was always loud,” Tish recalled. “She loved life to the fullest.”
Her cousin also remembered Santiago’s close relationship with her father, de Leon’s uncle.
“They were two peas in a pod,” de Leon said. Both of them had “the biggest heart.”
Melissa Messinger, spokeswoman for Evanston/Skokie Dist. 65, shared fond memories of Santiago’s work in her son Aiden’s school, Dr Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies.
“The Bessie Rhodes community knew her to be an amazing, dedicated mom with so much positivity and love for all,” Messinger wrote.
Staff and teachers “are deeply saddened by the news of Ms. Santiago’s passing,” Messinger wrote. “Our hearts go out to her children and family.”
At ETHS, Angelina Harding, liaison for the dean’s office and the McKinney Vento program, said Santiago was popular there, too.
“A lot of (Alexander’s) friends called her ‘Mom,'” Harding said. “She was there for the kids.”
Thompson recalled Santiago’s love of sports, and said she was excited to put on her Bulls gear and watch “The Last Dance,” the documentary miniseries about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ 1997-1998 season.
“I wish my dad was here to watch ‘The Last Dance’ with me,” Thompson recalled Santiago, an only child, saying to her.
Santiago also was a die-hard Cubs fan, Thompson said, and owned five authentic players’ jerseys.
Santiago worked at NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Skokie Hospital and its predecessor, Rush North Shore Medical Center in Skokie, as a patient account specialist until her departure about two years ago, NorthShore officials confirmed.
Now, Santiago’s cousins have created a GoFundMe to raise money for Alexander and Aiden’s college fund. As of Friday afternoon they had raised nearly $28,000.
Thompson said one of Santiago’s biggest goals for her oldest son was to graduate from ETHS and attend college.
“His lawn sign was delivered yesterday. He is absolutely going to graduate,” Thompson said. Next, Alexander plans to enroll at Oakton Community College.
“He’s doing this for his mother,” she said.
Harding’s sister, April Harding of Evanston, said she had been close with Santiago since their ETHS days.
“She worked so hard to take care of her boys,” April Harding said. Now that she’s gone, the sisters vowed to “make sure that her name lives on”
All of the women said they would help take care of Santiago’s boys.
