Mother and daughter blessed by Catholic schools

Samantha Esquivel hadn’t planned on raising a daughter alone. She was given little choice when her husband, John Patrick Esquivel, suddenly died of an aortic aneurysm just one month after their daughter, Shania was born. 

Those first six months after he died were the hardest. Esquivel was reeling from the loss of her husband and at the same time experiencing the joy and wonder of her newborn baby. During that time Esquivel’s mother, Maria Perez and a friend, Cynthia Fernandez (who later became Shania’s Godmother) never left her side and helped her care for her daughter. 

Esquivel had been attending Mass regularly all her life and had been a parishioner at Ss. Cyril & Methodius for years. Her loss did not change that. She continued going to Mass and praying, knowing in her heart that her family would one day be blessed. “He has blessed us. He has never left me or deserted me,” she said.

To make a decent living, Esquivel chose to go into the medical field and began attending school after being accepted into the nursing program at Del Mar College. “I just got loans. I didn’t get any grants for school,” she said. Eventually, she became a registered nurse.

Esquivel was determined her daughter would attend Catholic School because it cultivates a moral foundation in young minds. “It’s solid and the classes are small.” Teachers can give her daughter more attention and she would also receive preparation for her sacraments. With the help of tuition assistance during the years she needed it, Esquivel was able to put Shania through Catholic schools from pre-K through 12th grade.

Nannette Quintanilla-Hatch, now Associate Superintendent of Catholic Schools, was principal at Ss. Cyril & Methodius School when Esquivel enrolled Shania in pre-K3 and asked for tuition assistance. “Samantha was a hard worker and would sometimes work two jobs if she had to, all the while going to school. She had such a rough time, but stayed faithful,” Quintanilla-Hatch remembers. When she asked for tuition assistance, “she always worked extra to make up for that–always volunteering to help. She was one of those moms, who was there for whatever event, activity or fundraiser we had.” 

“She is amazing,” Quintanilla-Hatch said. “When I got sick with breast cancer, she was one of the first persons who came to see me. She also started up this thing at the school making pink ribbons, with hearts in them and passed them out for people to wear until I was better.”

Shania attended Ss. Cyril & Methodius Elementary School for all but her fourth-grade year, which was spent at St. Elizabeth in Alice, where her mom was employed as the school nurse. She also attended Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School and St. John Paul II High School. 

In addition to laying a solid foundation, Catholic Schools helped both mother and daughter form a unique bond of friends and families over the years. Many of Shania’s classmates have attended the same schools and their parents have cheered for them all at various games or events.

Besides sharing a bond with families and friends, their parish priests, Father Peter Martinez and Father David Bayardo, have been a constant in their lives. Both priests had served at Ss. Cyril & Methodius and now serve as president of St. John Paul II (Father Martinez) where she attended High School and Most Precious Blood (Father Bayardo), where they are now parishioners.

When Shania was growing up, Esquivel never remarried. She always put her daughter’s needs first. “I guess that’s why we are so close,” Esquivel said. “I’m always at her school. Anybody who knows Shy [Shania] knows me.”

Her daughter can attest to her mother’s devotion. Shania has been excelling at sports since the fourth grade. At St. John Paul II High School, she was head cheerleader, volleyball captain, basketball captain and won sixth place in the discus throw for a TAPPS State competition in her junior year. She can count on one hand the number of sports events her mother has missed in all those years. “I’ve always felt that if I can’t go to one of her games or events, who is going to go. I am blessed. With all the jobs I’ve had–it’s never been an issue even to this day.” 

“We go to church together as a family and we eat dinner as a family. When Shania was younger, I never left her home alone,” Esquivel said. If one of them would be late for dinner, they would wait for each other, “sometimes we won’t eat until 10 p.m., because she is waiting for me or I for her.”

Shania excelled academically as well. She was student body president, a member of the National English and Spanish Honor Society, a Legati ambassador for St. John Paul II and the only person in Corpus Christi to receive the prestigious Semper-Fidelis award. She was in the top 6% in her class and she was awarded the Presidential Scholarship. She will be attending Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and wants to become nurse practitioner. 

“Mom has really inspired me–being a single mom. I want to go help people the same way my mom helps me. I always push for greatness, I don’t settle for mediocrity,” Shania said. “I want to keep going and I want to help somebody while doing that.” 

One way Shania has helped people has been by serving persons with disabilities at the Special Hearts Prom and Special Olympics hosted by St. John Paul II High School students and Catholic Charities Ministry & Life Enrichment for Persons with Disabilities.

Life as a single mom has not always been easy for Esquivel–working full time and rushing around to get Shania to practice and games has always been challenging. “Sometimes faith is all I had,” Esquivel said. “Her faith is so strong,” she said of Shania, “and that makes me stronger in my own faith. Her faith is amazing. She says she get’s it from me, but I don’t think so. I believe her dad is with her all the time.”