November 23, 2025
As I am seeing the news spreading today through the many circles of community that she connected, I'm deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend Maria De Los Angeles the night before last. I will be ever grateful for her immense contributions as one of my editors for Treasures in My Chest, but she also fell in love with our family, our village, our musical world - and especially Mountville.
That was how she rolled; sleeves up, wide-eyed, heart-centered, through an amazing array of circles from Miami to DC and the hills of Virginia, and home to the north coast of Spain. It is simply unspeakably hard that her light now shines in a realm beyond our sight, just a few days after posting how joyful and grateful she was to make it to another birthday..
This morning I realized why a poem had insisted on birthing itself Friday, as practice and preparation for the poem I would be writing in remembrance of our friend, for she lived a life so much beyond simple prosaic facts. After scratching out my first draft, Michelle and I went out into the crisp and glorious November morning to plant a beautyberry bush, where only yesterday we released a dying maple tree from its earthly existence. The beautyberry is still adorned with brilliant purple berries here in the hard frost of late autumn; throughout the year it will be a veritable waystation buffet for countless critters.
While we dug and chipped at the maple roots to make way for our new project, a red-shouldered hawk landed nearby and serenaded us. When we put the beautyberry in the ground, it flew up to the highest treetop and watched until we were finished.
That would be just how she might say "I'm still here, and this is marvelous!". Her presence nurtured all of those circles of community, from her Miami Cuban ex-pat friends to her flamenco dance groups in DC and Spain, much as we hope our new beautyberry will nourish weary winged travelers. Her legacy of connection deserves nothing less than my best effort, and yet that still is a poor sliver of a window into a remarkable life.
She is indeed of the angels now. Maybe she always has been.