SCHOOL MOURNS BELOVED FIRST GRADE TEACHER

March 2001 - On December 24, 2000, our school community suffered a great loss with the death of first grade teacher Emma Bonilla-Abreu, after a long struggle with breast cancer. She was 36.

Mrs. Bonilla, as she was known at the school, served St. Elizabeth School for four years after working for a number of years in the business field. Principal Sr. Noreen Nolan described her as a natural, “one of the most fabulous teachers” she has ever met.

“She was a Christian educator who embraced the school philosophy of educating the whole child,” Sr. Noreen says. “They were her kids. Even when she was at her sickest, she came to teach anyway, saying that the children really needed her.”

Over 200 mourners gathered at St. Elizabeth Church on December 27 for the funeral Mass. Many parents and children joined the faculty and staff in attendance.

Mrs. Bonilla leaves behind her husband of 14 years Robert Abreu (a 1978 graduate of St. Elizabeth) and their three children, Kristyn (age 11), Alycia (9) and Emily (5). She is also survived by her mother Alicia, twin sister Martha, brother Johnny, and her mother-in-law Mrs. Esperanza Abreu, a kindergarten teacher’s assistant at the school.

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