Mary McCarthy Gomez Cueto
On April 3, 2009 Mary McCarthy Gomez Cueto, born in St. John’s Newfoundland in 1900 passed away in Havana at the age 108. The world lost a gracious lady of steely determination and refinement. Mary’s story is a story of love. Love for her husband Pedro and love for her adopted country and its people. Canadian consul Mark Burger said "Mary McCarthy was perhaps the best welder of the friendship between the people of Cuba and Canada" (image by Reuters)
She met Pedro Gomez Cuento as a young music student in Boston. They married and settled in Havana in 1923, where they were part of the glamorous social swirl of the era. Pedro built her a mansion in an exclusive area of Havana and named it “Villa Mary” after his beloved bride. Frank Sinatra owned a house behind Villa Mary and was a guest at the gatherings around Mary’s Steinway grand piano. Pedro died in 1951 and she would remain unmarried for 57 years until they were reunited in death . Before his death Pedro deposited a considerable fortune and expensive jewellery (including three gold rosaries) in First National Bank In Boston. After the Cuban revolution in 1959, her husband’s former businesses where nationalized. Mary chose to remain living in Havana while her wealthy neighbours fled. When others urged her to leave, she steadfastly stayed put. Gradually the abandoned mansions were converted to embassies and diplomatic residences and Mary would give piano lessons to her new neighbours such as the daughter of Frank A. Campbell, Guyana’s ambassador to Cuba in the late seventies who wrote this article.
When asked why she didn’t return to her native Canada and renounce her Cuban citizenship so she could have access to the Boston Bank account the United States government had frozen she simply replied that Canada was too cold for her.
She lived on the modest pension from the Cuban government as a retiree until the American government relented and allowed her access to her account for medicines, but only 96$ a month.
For 50 years, instead of leaving and resuming her millionaire lifestyle Mary stayed in Cuba with her godson Elio Garcia by her side and is now is reunited with her beloved Pedro in death, and buried beside him the the Colon Cemetery.
On April 3, 2009 Mary McCarthy Gomez Cueto, born in St. John’s Newfoundland in 1900 passed away in Havana at the age 108. The world lost a gracious lady of steely determination and refinement. Mary’s story is a story of love. Love for her husband Pedro and love for her adopted country and its people. Canadian consul Mark Burger said "Mary McCarthy was perhaps the best welder of the friendship between the people of Cuba and Canada" (image by Reuters)
She met Pedro Gomez Cuento as a young music student in Boston. They married and settled in Havana in 1923, where they were part of the glamorous social swirl of the era. Pedro built her a mansion in an exclusive area of Havana and named it “Villa Mary” after his beloved bride. Frank Sinatra owned a house behind Villa Mary and was a guest at the gatherings around Mary’s Steinway grand piano. Pedro died in 1951 and she would remain unmarried for 57 years until they were reunited in death . Before his death Pedro deposited a considerable fortune and expensive jewellery (including three gold rosaries) in First National Bank In Boston. After the Cuban revolution in 1959, her husband’s former businesses where nationalized. Mary chose to remain living in Havana while her wealthy neighbours fled. When others urged her to leave, she steadfastly stayed put. Gradually the abandoned mansions were converted to embassies and diplomatic residences and Mary would give piano lessons to her new neighbours such as the daughter of Frank A. Campbell, Guyana’s ambassador to Cuba in the late seventies who wrote this article.
When asked why she didn’t return to her native Canada and renounce her Cuban citizenship so she could have access to the Boston Bank account the United States government had frozen she simply replied that Canada was too cold for her.
She lived on the modest pension from the Cuban government as a retiree until the American government relented and allowed her access to her account for medicines, but only 96$ a month.
For 50 years, instead of leaving and resuming her millionaire lifestyle Mary stayed in Cuba with her godson Elio Garcia by her side and is now is reunited with her beloved Pedro in death, and buried beside him the the Colon Cemetery.
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