The youngest of six children, Maria was born on September 23, 1939, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. At the age of 10, her family moved to Brooklyn, New York. She grew up on Flushing Avenue across from the Naval Yard in a vibrant home filled with Puerto Rican cuisine, radio broadcasts, singing, dancing, laughter, and prayer. She was known for being a positive-thinking Pollyanna who could bring light to the darkest moments with her faith and love.
In 1962, she entered the convent as a novitiate with the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in Warwick, New York. Following illness that prevented her from taking final vows as a nun, she left holy orders in 1965 but remained a devout Roman Catholic. After training at the Wilfred Academy, Maria worked as a hairstylist and beautician. She then took courses at Washburn University and entered the field of nursing.
Always playful and fashionably dressed, Maria met her physician husband by chance in a hospital elevator at the age of 31. Despite being only a year apart in age, she successfully convinced him on their first date that he had accidentally asked out a minor. They married a year later in Las Vegas. When their children were born, Maria stayed home to become a full-time caregiver and homemaker.
Over the years, Maria moved with her family many times, building a second family of strong friendships in Kansas, Mississippi, California, Pennsylvania, and Florida. In 1985, she and her family moved to South Florida, where she became a founding member of a then-new church parish, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, where she remained active for many years and enjoyed lasting fellowship with her Emmaus sisters.
Despite legal blindness that prevented her from ever driving and an autoimmune condition that debilitated her muscles, she remained positive and hopeful. As vascular dementia, heart disease, medication-related diabetes, and immobility impacted the last years of her life, she valiantly fought through her pain to remain present. Throughout her 10 months in home hospice care, she continued always giving everything she had to her loved ones. She lived a humble and honest life of holy sacrifice, constantly thinking of others before herself. She touched many lives, and all who knew her were blessed. Though she is truly home now, her spirit and love live on. Her memory is an ever-present blessing.
She is survived by her husband of 49 years, Dr. Chih-Ping “Charles” Yang; her children, Tamara Demko (Rob Siedlecki Jr.), Thomas Yang, and Angela Yang; her grandchildren Elijah (19), Cole (17), Josh (15), and Madison (15), and by her sister Carmen Dixon (Bob). She was preceded in death by her daughter Maria Angeline; her parents Pedro and Paula; and her siblings Elena, Brunilda, Rolando, and Estrella. She is also survived by her many beloved nieces and nephews and their children.
A funeral mass will be held at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Coral Springs, Florida, on December 18, 2020.
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