Zoë Newcomb
Features Editor
Aida Flores-Hemelberg spends her days making photocopies in a tiny room in the basement. She smiles as she explains her job, saying it may seem dull but it is much more than just managing paper.
Flores-Hemelberg began working on the Broadway campus in 1976 as a cleaner after immigrating to the United States from El Salvador.
“I had to leave my 3-year-old daughter with my mom when I came to the U.S.,” said Flores-Hemelberg. “It was a hard sacrifice, but I needed to make a better life for my daughter than what I had.”
Flores-Hemelberg started working in the printing office when schools decided to switch to a cleaning company.
“It was fun cleaning the school, so I didn’t want to switch,” said Flores-Hemelberg. “They offered me the kitchen, but I don’t like to cook and I wanted to do something fun.”
Flores-Hemelberg’s job in the printing office is to handle mail and manage big projects for teachers. She misses the effort she had to exert when she was cleaning the building, but says she appreciates any type of work.
Flores-Hemelberg’s father died when she was 5-years-old, leaving her mother struggling to support a family of five children. Flores-Hemelberg says that it was a difficult life, but watching her mother work hard gave her a strong work ethic.
“We were really poor,” said Flores-Hemelberg. “When I had my first child, I decided that I would do better.”
Flores-Hemelberg’s two sons, Jonathan Hemelberg (SHB ’00, SHHS ’04) and Fidel Alvarez (SHB ’90) both attended Stuart Hall. Flores-Hemelberg says she’s been apart of Schools of the Sacred Heart so long that her co-workers have become family. In fact, kitchen coordinator Elsy Bran is actually her sister.
“She has a very strong spirit,” said Bran. “She’s been through a lot, and her relationship with her children is great because it.”
Flores-Hemelberg says that she has seen the school through so many changes and so much growth, that it has become an important part of her life.
“It’s not like a job for me because everyone is nice, even the students are nice,” said Flores-Hemelberg. “I’m comfortable here, because it’s my home. I know all the traditions, sometimes I remind the teachers when they forget.”
The hardest part of the job for Flores-Hemelberg is watching the people who have become her family leave.
“Everyone leaves, nuns and teachers, they all leave,” said Flores-Hemelberg. “Some of the nuns even die, they were my friends and then they die. Sometimes I enjoy the change a lot, but sometimes there is nothing I can do. I just follow the rules.”
The change that she sees everyday is just a part of how life works, Flores-Hemelberg says. She says that saying goodbye to one old friend is worth making a new one.
“This school has seen me through a lot,” said Flores-Hemelberg. “It’s my home and I don’t plan on leaving.”
