‘Work is the Fountain of My Life’

In 1993, Elizabeth Jaramillo walked to 200 Park Avenue, the iconic MetLife Building north of Grand Central Terminal, to ask for work as a cleaner. “We will call you,” the manager said after the interview. No one called her. Jaramillo went back the following week. “I want to work here,” she told the manager, “please give me the opportunity.” But he didn’t call. She returned again, week after week until he got so tired of seeing her that he finally said, “you can start tomorrow.”

“And here I am,” Jaramillo smiled, her blue eyeliner glowing under her brown eyes.

“The best part of my job is that I have been able to do it for 32 years. I used to tell my children, if you are going to be a shoemaker, make the best shoes. I work in cleaning and I do the best cleaning with great pride.”

Jaramillo, who is 61, was drinking a cup of black drip coffee. “I am originally from Colombia,” she said, “where the best coffee in the world comes from.” Born and raised in one of Colombia’s leading coffee-producing regions, drinking good coffee is part of her heritage. At home, she uses a strainer to make it, the traditional way.

Her mother died when Jaramillo was twelve, leaving her father to raise nine children on his own. At thirteen, Jaramillo took a job packing groceries at a supermarket to help the family. She had to study at night to finish high school.

Jaramillo has been working for almost fifty years. Rather than complain about it, it fills her with pride. “My work is the fountain of my life,” she explained. “Every day I thank God for giving me another opportunity to do the work I love.”

“Every day is a best day,” she mused, “because it’s one’s fight for oneself. There is a saying,” she remembered, citing the gospel of Matthew, “each day has enough trouble of its own. And my daily quest is to keep pushing through all trouble and move forward.”

When asked if she ever experienced an unpleasant day, she paused and thought for a while. “Well, this happened many years ago.” She sighed. “I don’t know exactly in which part of the building, but we found out that someone had jumped out of the window. And that was very sad.”

Jaramillo listens to gospels every morning and attends mass every Sunday. Her Catholic faith, her work and her family, two adult children, a stepson, a granddaughter, her siblings, her nieces and nephews, motivate her. But she also motivates herself, she said.

Over a decade ago, Jaramillo’s husband passed away. She buried his ashes in Colombia and has not been back since, “it’s too painful,” she admitted. But once she began talking about her granddaughter, Penelope, who is six years old, and who she takes to dance classes on Saturdays, when she is off from work, she smiled again, and her blue eyeliner glowed.