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Lauren Santos

Updated: Oct 15




Lauren Santos of Clinton, Connecticut  passed away on October 11, 2024.  Laurie had a unique inner strength, battling through  25 years of severe health challenges with both grit and humor.  Coincident with her physical  trials, she was an exceptional parent, grandparent,  spouse and friend.  Laurie participated in or was formative in important community activities in Clinton and the shoreline. As her friends and neighbors have said, she exemplified  grace, generosity and resilience often in the face of near hopeless medical odds.


Laurie was born in Alameda, California and spent much of her early years in the Sierra Foothills, in the ‘gold rush town’ of Dutch Flat, California.  She was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and trained as an emergency department Physician’s Associate (PA), later  working at Yale New Haven and St. Raphael’s Hospitals, and at the Middlesex Shoreline Clinic. 


She moved to Clinton in 1986, where she lived for the rest of her 38 years with her husband Martin Cherniack, and two sons, Alexey and Ivan Cherniack.  She is survived by her husband, her sons, daughter-in laws Eve and Mayra, and four grandchildren -- Emily, Mateo, Tomas, and Maya.  She leaves cousins, nieces, and nephews, who were beside her through her final illness. She is also survived by her much-loved dog, Marcel.  Laurie had a group of lifelong friends from California and had decades of loyal and loving friends in Connecticut.  The family has been affected by the intensity of the love, recognition and remorse from  these many close friends. 


Laurie was an ethically driven community activist.  She served for many years on the Clinton Zoning Board of Appeals, on Clinton’s Scranton Library Board and on the Democratic Town Committee.  She was a core founder of the Shoreline League of Democratic Women.


This obituary would be incomplete if there was no mention of Laurie’s medical conditions.  She was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis more than two decades ago.  Al amyloidosis is an extremely rare bone marrow disorder that  causes infiltration and destruction of  vital organs.  In her case, the damage to her heart meant near and certain death at the time of diagnosis.  She was accepted into an experimental, alternate heart transplantation program, in 2001.  Laurie was the  sole survivor, living 23 years with another person’s heart.  The years were not easy.  The necessary medications eventually destroyed her kidneys and forced dialysis for the last 5 ½  years of her life.  She survived  severe infections, aortic surgical grafts, loss of function of one lung, grave gastrointestinal disease, and the tyranny of  a vast number of daily medications.    Because of her hopefulness, many of her friends were shielded  from the high cost of her refusal to surrender to  a rare and terrible disease.


She was active, well read, a world-traveler, caring and socially conscious throughout her post-transplantation life.  Laurie  was a gift and an example.  One of her nieces said it best, “She is the strongest woman I have ever met.”

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