South Boston Online
Forever
Sixteen
By Rick Winterson
August 3, 2006
 A
magic person has left us far too soon, and we are the ones who are
poorer for her departure. Elisa Santry was smart, loving, cheerful,
and always adventurous.
Elisa Santry was a premature baby.
Perhaps her early birth symbolized her whole life. One of Elisa’s
most striking characteristics was her ability to come up with an
idea and run with it on her own. As she grew, she developed many
interests, but there was a thread – a love of nature – that ran
through her life.
Elisa was active from the beginning –
a modern young girl who loved sports and activities. She played
soccer at five, performed in school plays, and became a
cheerleader. In a few years, she began studying ballet. But the
schoolwork was always first. Elisa was a really good student.
 When
she was five, Elisa took her first hike. It was to the top of the
Blue Hill Observatory Tower. See her picture taken in the
observatory tower. It combines an impish smile with a “See how well
I did” expression.
Elisa visited her oldest brother,
Michael, in San Francisco when she was eleven. The trip involved
innumerable experiences, ranging from pushup contests to splatters
of purple hair gel all over the bathroom. She saw sea lions and
deer in Monterrey; she walked the Pinnacle National Monument. The
photographs show how she was growing and maturing.
Elisa was strong in mathematics and
the sciences. She excelled at the Harbor School, the charter school
that occupies the old M.R.M. School. On her own, she took the exams
and got into the O’Bryant High School of Mathematics and Science.
That she did well in her technical courses goes without saying.
In addition, Elisa aced her course in
Creative Writing. Clearly, she was a multi-talented, multi-level
young woman. Her career plans weren’t yet formed, but at one time
or another, she had considered becoming a veterinarian, a
pediatrician, a singer, or an actress.
Family mattered to Elisa. Last year,
she set up a “Spring Fiori” – a Spring Flowers party. Flowers
adorned the house and deck. She and her friend, Heather, helped her
adored nephew and nieces, Kevin, Jenna, and Ka-Leigh, plant flowers
all over the backyard. And there was always time to revisit the
Blue Hills when brother Michael came in from the West Coast. Take a
good long look at the picture of willowy, beautiful Elisa, now 15,
standing in the waters of Ponkapoag.
Elisa died during an Outward Bound
expedition in the canyons of Utah. The heat was infernal; an injury
to another member split the expedition in two. The exact details of
what finally happened to her may never be entirely clear.
Her mother, Elisa Woods, and her
family are mourning. They can only hope for some kind of closure to
this tragedy. We all mourn at the passing of one so young, so
promising. It’s time to bring her memory home.
 Farewell
and Godspeed, Elisa. Your memory will be forever fresh. Forever
sixteen.
There is presently a memorial fund being set up at the Mt.
Washington Bank in Elisa Santry's name. Please make your donation
in Elisa's name and send it to Mt. Washington Bank, 430 west
Boradway, South Boston, MA 02127. Also, there is a Memorial
Scholarship fundraiser being planned for the near future.
SBOL will keep you informed.
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