Yolanda ‘Yoly’ Maura Santiago Marquez
July 27, 1945 – August 26, 2024
Yolanda ‘Yoly’ Maura Santiago Marquez, 79, died August 26 2024 in Seattle, WA.
Born in Manila, Philippines July 27 1945, educated by the Sisters of Maryknoll, she later came to United States in 1968 to join her brother Antonio Marquez, MD and family in Cincinnati. There she earned a Masters degree in History and taught High School.
In 1973 she moved to New Jersey and gave birth to her only child, Joseph Marquez, MD whom she raised as a single mother. Her own loving nature meant that she was surrounded by parents, family, and friends who supported her during this journey of financial hardship and getting her bearings in a country and culture she was still familiarizing herself with. Her Journal of the first year of her son’s life reveal the extraordinary love her mother Natividad provided -it was Yolanda’s goal to model her own mother in raising her child.
A few years later she moved to Los Angeles to be near her best friend Joan ‘Aunt Jenny’ Crawford, as well as other Filipino family members who had already settled in the area -her Tio Jose and cousins Nene and Zita. Soon she was joined by her brothers Benjo and Fulton and then her parents. The Marquez family settled in Silver Lake and shared one large home where friends and family seemed to come and go freely creating a lively environment, rich in Filipino culture. During this time, Yoly recognized a future in computer science and went to night school to learn how to program in a variety of languages including FORTRAN and C++. She worked in the field of systems architecture with the State of California until retirement, having made good friends there.
She was seen by many as quiet and sweet. This is true and also only one side of her. With modest nature, she managed to visualize and manifest her way from being a single mother on Welfare ($214 a month), to an early woman in the computer sciences, to a home owner and a State Employee with a stable job and generous pension -a high aspiration for many immigrants to the States. This gave her the environment and flexibility to explore her hobbies of art and travel, and to be generous with her time with friends and family. It gave her the room to nurture her son, Joseph, and provide the conditions that allowed him to pursue a future as a successful Urologist.
She enjoyed her home in Burbank where she tended to her landscape, and was close to family, visiting and being visited regularly. Road trips were a favorite past time, with many a New Year’s spent either in Las Vegas or in Zion National Park -usually with Fides and Fulton and others she considered family.
At the start of the COVID pandemic, she and her brother Fulton moved to Washington State to be close to her son during these uncertain times. There, they enjoyed the beauty of the northwest with a lovely home up on a bluff overlooking Skagit Bay and Mount Baker. During the almost 2 years living in this lovely setting, bonding with nature in an environment so different from Los Angeles, they learned of the alternative to traditional burial and cremation called natural organic reduction.
Their time on Camano Island came to an end when Yolanda and Fulton were simultaneously impacted by serious medical conditions that made independent living impossible. It was then, with the great help of Joseph’s wife Sioban Keel, good friend Nina Lapus and Yoly’s nephew Anthony Marquez, they moved to within 10 minutes of Joseph, into an Adult Family Home. There, as their conditions deteriorated, they still had a rich environment with the sounds and smells and old world respect of the Filipina care givers at Wedgwood Gardens (formerly View Haven).
Sadly, Yolanda succumbed to a gradual neurodegenerative disease. Per her wishes, her body was transformed into rich living soil through the services of Recompose. Her remains became the essential foundations of land restoration to support forests and salmon habitats.
Yolanda is survived by her son Joseph Marquez, MD, brother Benjo, and his children Christian and Kaitlyn, and Antonio’s children Len, Edward, Anthony and David.
She was preceded in death by brothers Antonio and Fulton, sister Fides, and parents Leonardo and Natividad.