Espidiona Susana Pino

August 2, 1936 - January 26, 2022

1936 – 2022 Espidiona Susana Pino, age 85, a resident of Belen, NM, a wonderful wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, cousin, teacher, neighbor, and friend to many, passed away peacefully in her sleep to join all the beloved who have gone before her. Her life of adventure began in San Marcial, NM and was paved with the love of parents and extended familia who demonstrated how it is possible to work hard and love with all your heart. The family grew with two younger brothers and throughout her life Susan shared stories of their days on the farm and the “trouble” they caused or avoided, as she was a great story teller! From Susan’s tales of high school years in Belen, we imagined that it was the glory days of this community, from Isla’s Drive-In to her first job at Whiteway Café and Susan was grateful for those friendships formed in the 1950’s and the women who laughed and cried on each other’s shoulders over the decades. In her first semester at Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM she met a gentlemen named Mario Pino, who opened the door for her as she walked into a local department store. A few years later, after working as a single woman at Sandia Laboratories, Susan and Mario became husband and wife at Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church and chose Belen as the place to raise their family. As a beautiful woman with a sense of humor, solid sense of style, wisdom, and intelligence, she brought her best self to working in retail at Becker Dalies Department Store, as a specialist to young children at Central Elementary School and Susan taught herself to use a computer program at Belen Junior High to help special needs children know that they were capable and deserving of attention. After retirement, she enjoyed watching her novellas and put her heart and soul into being a wonderful grandmother and traveled the country with Mario to connect with their loved ones in Illinois, Kansas, and Colorado and cooked the meals and baked the desserts that will always bring her to mind but will never taste the same without her touch. When she got her first iPad her adventures continued online with emails containing jokes, prayers, selfies, updates on family and alter, Zoom meetings during COVID in which she asked us to all to mute our microphones and raise our hand when we had something to say- she was back in the classroom and the adventures continues to the moment of her death. Susan is preceded in death by her parents, Nazario and Josie Gonzales; daughter, Sofia Marie; and friends and relatives who are now waiting as she takes a place at the table of a great banquet that has been prepared for her since the beginning of time by God our Savior. She is survived by her loving husband of 60 years, Mariano (Mario); daughters, Stephanie Pino-Dressman (Terry), Rozanna Pino Kurpius (Charles), Leslie Pino Durant (Rick), Linda MacEachen (Michael); brothers, Joe (Georgia) and Casimiro Gonzales (Connie); 12 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren; and numerous nephews and cousins who loved her, all feeling better about themselves after spending time with her. May the prayer that was on a card by her bedside offer you the peace that Susan found in this life and brings back full circle round to a loving God., “My past, oh Lord to your mercy, My present to your love, My future, to your providence.” ~St. Padre Pio A visitation will be held on Monday, February 14, 2022 at Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church at 9:00 a.m., with a rosary at 10:00 a.m. A funeral mass will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Our Lady of Belen Memorial Gardens. The family suggests in lieu of flowers contributions in her name be directed to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Donate online to: stjude.org . Donate by mail to: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105. Please sign Susan’s online tribute at www.romerofuneralhomenm.com Romero Funeral Home, 609 N. Main St., Belen, NM.