Wanda DeSelle
76, Madera
Every workday for 40 years, Wanda DeSelle could be counted on to be the first one to show up in her office at 8:30 in the morning and the last to leave at 7 in the evening.
Her early arrivals held true even when she was sick.
“We’d have to send her home,” said Mohammad Ashraf, the cardiologist who was her longtime boss. “She was very loyal.”
Always being there was only part of what made DeSelle an extraordinary employee. The nurse’s versatility in filling every conceivable role was unmatched.
“She could be a nurse, she could be a receptionist, she could be a biller, she could type — she could do anything,” Ashraf said. “She left her mark on everything in the office.”
Because she handled all of the office finances, Ashraf didn’t even know where his bank was located in the Central California town of Madera until DeSelle died April 3 of complications from COVID-19. She was 76.
DeSelle fell ill after attending the funeral of Maria Rodriguez, another nurse who had worked at Ashraf ’s clinic and died in a car accident in late February. According to Ashraf, DeSelle was among a group of mourners who sat near a man who was an asymptomatic carrier of the coronavirus.
She was eventually hospitalized as her condition deteriorated and the family learned that her daughter and pregnant granddaughter had been exposed to the virus as a result of caring for DeSelle.
Those who attended DeSelle’s funeral April 8 at the Arbor Vitae cemetery had to watch her casket lowered into the ground from their cars because of restrictions on public gatherings. Ashraf said friends and patients cried when they learned of the arrangements.
Survivors include two daughters, Maureena Silva and Tonya Moe; a brother, Robert; five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, according to the Madera Tribune.
Now that the cemetery has been reopened to mourners, Ashraf said he has visited DeSelle’s gravesite every day after work.
“It broke my heart to lose you but you did not go alone,” Ashraf said, reading from a passage he found that captured his feelings for DeSelle, “because part of me went with you the day God took you home.”