The Healing Journey

February 27, 2024

Johanna Ordonez believes it was God’s providence that led to her job as a Family Advisor at St. Peter Cemetery in Danbury. After 18 years working as a pharmacy technician, she left Walgreens, and that very same day, a priest at St. Peter Church told her about an opening at the cemetery. Although the work is totally different from her previous job, it lets her do what is most important to her — help people who are dealing with a tragedy.

“God put me here for a reason, and so here I am,” the Colombian native said. “I never thought before what it would be like working in a cemetery, but when you work here, you meet families that need your help. It is a very important job. It is a ministry.”

She is always available to assist families, filling out paperwork and helping them make decisions on what she says is often “the worst day of their lives, when they just lost their mom, their dad, a brother or sister or child.”

“My first family was a young couple who just lost a baby,” she sadly recalls. It was very difficult, but she assisted them, offered consolation and prayed for them. Sometimes family members are upset because their belief in God can be shaken after losing a loved one, she said.

Her Catholic faith is fundamental to Johanna. She has volunteered at her parish for more than 18 years, and her husband Jorge is studying for the permanent diaconate. She is also a member of a prayer group that meets on Monday nights, and she uses it as an opportunity to pray for people who have died, along with their families.

In addition, she often finds herself explaining the importance of Catholic funeral rites to her friends and the people she meets. (For more information, visit ctcemeteries.org)

“Every day we try to do our best,” Johanna says. “When people come through that door, I introduce myself, and they become part of my family. I know why God put me in this place.”

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