Susana Pilar Carrasco

Susana Pilar Carrasco

Born in the age of Aquarius in Rancagua, Chile, Susana was always a person who evaded being predicted or defined. She started as a quiet, painfully shy, but deeply observant and perceptive girl. Incredibly intelligent, she began school early and graduated high school by age sixteen: she became one of the first women in the family to obtain this level of education. By age seventeen, she obtained a secretarial certificate and entered the workforce in the early 80's- one of the first women in the family to have formal employment outside of the home. From there, she worked a string of office jobs. Through the 70's and 80's, Susana grew up in political turmoil and came of age during the Pinochet regime. Her family became separated as an aunt's family became exiled to Venezuela for political dissidence. This instilled a deeper appreciation for the simple practices of democracy- even going to vote could make her emotional.

Introverted, Susana carefully picked who she befriended. As a girl, her best best friends and playmates were her numerous cousins. She cherished family trips to Chile's white sand beaches or river dams ... even when the dam was opened and released water all over them. She became extremely close to her aunts, uncle, and maternal grandmother as her escape from her home life. She treasured weekend family dinners at her grandmother's home where the kids would often take their plate and hitch a spot on the stairwell for lack of room elsewhere. When the girls had town parade events or prom, the aunts would help them prepare and look their best.

At home, life was tough to say the least. She lost her father, Segundo, to the bottle by her late 20's. This is something she always carried with deep shame. She took on the role as his dutiful caretaker the last two years of his life because he developed a smoker's cancer. She was the youngest of four kids in a blended military family. She would fondly recall her older sister, Cecilia, as the most mischievous of them and their second mother. Her brother, Willy, was the best at drawing and the pair would shoot guns in the backyard when their oldest brother, Pilo, would return home from the navy. She recalled Pilo as a quiet boy comforting her who went through a hippie phase. In her teen years, Susana became an aunt for the first time to what would become ten nieces and nephews. She enjoyed taking them out on excursions, advising them when they felt conflicted, and teaching them how to ride a bike.

Susana chose to become a single mother to a daughter with a disability in her 30's. Because the child needed the best medical care possible, she developed connections with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She embarked on the journey to leave a cute mediterranean climate in Chile's center to embrace cruel Midwest winters in 2002. She had always enjoyed music in English but now her daughter watched in wonder as Susana pushed herself past the discomfort of not being able to communicate easily as she embraced a second language. She began taking classes at Hawthorne Education Center and breezed through, even skipping a level of English or two. She pushed herself to communicate with offices, doctors, cashiers, and her daughter's school. The payoff was that she quite mastered English and made it something all her own. She maintained her cutting, witty, sense of humor in both languages. She set the example by taking classes at community college and made it a requirement that her daughter would go to college, eventually sending her off to Hamline University.

Susana's first job in her new country was as a housekeeper in a hotel. Adaptability, patience, faith, and balancing her checkbook were the key to making it through difficult times. She built connections and community as Rochester embraced her and her daughter. Eventually, Susana obtained a certified nursing assistant license. She was an essential frontline worker through the pandemic. She became a unit coordinator at M Health Fairview.

Susana boldly fought stage four stomach cancer for a grueling ten months and had fourteen total chemo treatments. The cancer version of her simply wasn't who she was. She will always be remembered for who she was before then, not some terminal illness.

Susana is survived by over thirty cousins, three aunts, an uncle, three older siblings, ten nieces and nephews, and her daughter, Damaris.

May Susana's soul rest in glorious peace, liberation, dignity, and power beyond mortal problems and agony. Her legacy is that she's the first woman in the family to truly live life on her own terms. Life threw everything it could at her and she took it right back by the horns. She also took her own death by the horns, too. She will remain a guardian angel for her friends and family.