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February 16, 2023
On February 12th, 2023, a vibrant light was lost when Ramona Coste-Shuster passed away very suddenly.
In the small city of San Francisco De Macoris, on May 17th 1939, the bright spark that was Ramona Coste was born. She grew up in a pastel coloured house following her cousin Mario like a little shadow as if he were her big brother. She was the first of 14 half siblings. It was a family of strong smart women and kind loving and knowledgeable men. It was a closeknit family and Ramona felt equally at home both in the colorful cottage with her pigtail-tugging cousin and laughing sisters and brothers and her father’s large rolling house in the capital. She decided to attend medical school at Universidad de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic with support and encouragement from her family and worked as an OBGYN. She was one of very few women at the time to study medicine and was always grateful for the encouragement of people like her grandmother fondly known as Masu, her surgeon uncle Angito and cousin Mario.
Ramona moved to New York where she joined her cousin Mario and worked for a time as a GP. Wishing to refine her skills, she travelled to Argentina and completed additional training in gynecology in Buenos Aires, while working as a general practitioner in the local clinic run by Moises Shuster. While in Argentina, she spent a great deal of time with Moises and they fell in love. Soon they were married. This was a love to last the rest of her life- they were married for 54 years and were inseparable. Although she was a naturally gifted physician, Ramona needed some help learning cooking skills and enlisted the support of the generous family next door- the Colattos. Her work, however, wasn’t enough for her. When Moises’ family asked him to move closer to them in the US, she took advantage of the opportunity. She didn’t want to be pigeonholed into the area of medicine considered acceptable women. In New York she completed a 4-year psychiatric residency program specializing in community psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center. While completing a challenging residency, she gave birth to her first child- Dario, to be followed by Gabriela once she completed her residency. She became a staff psychiatrist at Kingsboro and soon became the mother of her third child Adriana. Later, Ramona became a staff psychiatrist at Coney Island Developmental Center and Maimonides Medical Center. She helped to teach resident (student) doctors. She was a beloved fixture in Maimonides and became the go-to doctor for the most challenging developmental cases. To Ramona, her clients were like her own children. Even after she retired, doctors and nurses at Maimonides sought her out for her brilliant insights and knowledge. She continued to ply her surgical skills on the needy stuffies of her grandchildren. She loved to nurture people and helped them find what they had lost. Outside of her work, she was dedicated to her role as a mother and wife. Ramona loved to spend time with her large extended family. In addition, she was passionate about travel and voyaged across the world with her young family roaming through far off places like Italy, Morocco, Egypt and China. She loved gardening and for many years maintained a vegetable patch and flower garden. Another great love was antiquing and shopping with her dear friend Bonnie, with whom she shared a very special kind of sisterhood. She was beloved to all who knew her and will be greatly missed.
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