Mercedes Rivera Figueroa de Miranda saw her first light of day on 5 September 1927, in Ciales, a small town surrounded by many waterfalls, hidden caves and caverns, quietly nestled high in the central mountains of 'lsla del Encanto', Puerto Rico. As the seventh of 10 children she was nourished by a family that created for her a safe, simple, gracious home. Here she grew to appreciate and value the small gestures and rewards of life such as waking in the early morning to air rich with the aromatic scent of freshly roasted coffee beans combined with the sweet savory smell of recently oven baked 'pan de agua'. These daily gifts were produced by her brothers working in the shops she walked by on her way to school.

She loved to play sports, excelled at Volleyball, developed a green thumb at cultivating flowers and plants, learned about fashion and decorating her home and in the true spirit of her name, Mercedes: Our Lady of the mercies-compassions, she loved caring for children in each & every one of their needs.T hus were planted the seeds that eventually flowered into her dreams and passions and a belief in the motto 'I never say no unless I try'. In 1947 she migrated to 'la gran ciudad de Nueva York' and as culture and tradition dictated for a 'señorita', she was under the care and protection of her beloved older brother Francisco.

Soon she met and loved an Ecuadorian immigrant. Holger Teobaldo Menendez de Garcia. She embraced this as her destiny, after all she was Miss Ecuador in her high school Latin America pageant. They married on Christmas Day 1949 gifting each other the beginning of a new exciting life together.

Much like their new homeland, the post WW II fast growing, energetic, enterprising New York City, she was one of the first to create her own cottage industry. She started a day-care service for the children of the recent arriving immigrants and also offered off-site secretarial services. She did all this while at the same time in the evenings, with a child in one hand and in the other a suitcase full of dresses, she had selected in the city garment district, she went door to door selling the latest New York fashions to the 'senoritas' of the fast growing Latin community of Washington Heights.

As her brother had done for her, it was her turn together with her husband to offer their house as a protecting and caring home for the migration of her sisters and parents to join her and in subsequent years for the immigration of her husband's family to join him.

She was also determined to fulfill her dream of owning a house where she would create a home to live her life as a wife in love and mother of love for their 4 children, Hugh, Dennis, Lilly and Dina. So hand in hand with her husband of 65 years, he died in March of 2014, they achieved the American dream of home ownership for a total of six different houses one better than the other. Each a castle for their devotion to their family including their 4 grandchildren Alexander, Joseph, Bryant and Zoe, also called Mercedes, also a Volleyball devotee, also an aspiring pediatric nurse and her loving son in-law Todd and dear daughter in-law Britt. She always proudly proclaimed her life's greatest accomplishment was 'Mi Familia'. She had truly lived her motto ' I never say no, unless I try'.

She frequently enriched our days with cultural anecdotes about her beloved Puerto Rico, painting them with her palette of color rich Spanish words and playful rhymes. A family favorite was her performance of her own high school poem, an homage to the capital ' La Ciudad de San Juan'.

Sobre su agresto colina
Que es lo mismo que un altar
San Juan como que se inclina
Para mirarse en el mar.
De una azul serpentina
De olas, se deja enredar
Oyendo la crystelina
Sonoridad de un cantar
De tarde cuando oscurese
El crepesculo se ofrese,
Todo lleno de rubor
Y asi en las aquas perdida
Se ve a San Juan unida
En espera de un amor
Amen

Mercedes Menendez de Rivera saw her last light of day, 94 years and one month from her first light of day, on 5 October 2021 in the small town of Fishkill surrounded by the many lakes and forests of the lush Hudson Valley region in upstate New York. Her physical presence will be forever missed and the spiritual poetry of her life will resonate eternally with all that had the good fortune to share a moment with this Our Own Lady of mercies-compassions.

Una vez mas, mami/nana, la bendicion
Adios mami/ nana, a Dios

Please visit her Book of Memories at www.mchoulfuneralhome.com.