Maria de los Angeles Ebeid passed away in the early hours of January 17th, 2021. Maria, who was often called "Macusa" by close friends and family, was born August 25th, 1937 in Baracoa, Cuba to Carolina Palomares Toirac and Manuel Perdices Peñes. Raised mostly in Havana, Maria earned a Bachelor of Arts and Science from Arturo Montori and attended the University of Havana's School of Physics and Chemistry not long before her studies were interrupted by the final years of the Cuban Revolution. She worked first at a telephone company, and then following its closure, she tutored students in English before migrating to the United States of America in 1964.

At 26, she arrived in Springfield, MA where she eventually met her beloved Ibrahim Ebeid on a commuter bus. They braided their two cultures, Cuban and Palestinian, with the East Coast culture of West New York, NJ, where they settled and made a life together for 45 years. Maria's house was alive with her cherished mother and aunt, two children, three languages, and the many customs and cuisines that the family maintained and shared.

While she valued tradition and the past, Maria was a forward-thinking woman, establishing herself as a strong matriarch and custodian of ancestral lore, head of the household, emotional center of the family. She worked for several decades in Manhattan, namely at El Banco Nacional de Argentina. She loved NYC and all the culture it offered her: the ballet, movies, theater, and especially opera at the Met. She said that sitting in the dark before the stage lights come on was a most exciting affair.  Her disposition was equal parts frugal and lavish, coupons and silk scarves. An avid reader of historical novels and science fiction, she took great pleasure in the imaginative flight to alternate worlds.

In more recent years, Maria and Ibrahim moved to Chicago to be near their son, where she continued, as she could, her encounters with travel, museums, and theater. Everyone who knew Macusa was touched by her joyous spirit, pious charity, and her patient attention; she had a remarkable talent for listening. Through her example, her family learned the importance of ritual, of celebration and mourning, and that of remembering.

Starting in Baracoa and ending in Chicago, home is everywhere now, and Maria's memory is kept sweetly alive by her devoted husband of 54 years Ibrahim Ebeid; a son Yazid Ebeid and his partner Regan Murphy; the granddaughters Isabel and Sylvia Ebeid, and their mother Anne Puotinen; a daughter Carolina Ebeid and her husband Jeffery Pethybridge, along with their son Patrick Pethybridge; and many loving kin and friends in Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, Florida, and Cuba.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in her name.