In a diverse borough full of immigrants trying to live the American Dream, one more has just achieved the ultimate goal: citizenship.
Joy Desuignes-Four, a 67-year-old former home care attendant, became a citizen on Thursday, August 27 at the Flushing Manor Care Center, the nursing home where she now resides.
Desuignes came to the United States in 1993, fleeing the violence suffocating her native Trinidad and Tobago after Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Muslim group, led a coup d’état in 1990. “They were burning buildings and killing people, and, you know, you try to get away from those kinds of things,” she said.
After moving to Flushing, she began working as a home care attendant. “I just like to care for people,” she said. “That’s been my goal since I was a child, caring for people.”
John McCann, who served as a detective for the NYPD for 25 years and is now retired, said that his mother really appreciated the care Desuignes gave her.
“She was a home care attendant, but beyond that she was my mother’s best friend. When my mother was in intensive care, she said ‘Joy, don’t leave me,’” McCann said.
“My mother’s last words – her dying wish – was, ‘Take care of that lady.’”
Desuignes also had a special relationship with Karen Walsh, McCann’s daughter. “We developed a friendship because she cared for my grandmother,” Walsh said. “She was also my spiritual adviser. She taught me to pray, and she told me about her life in Trinidad.”
Years ago, Walsh wrote a letter to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) advocating for Desuignes’ citizenship. “This has been the most important thing to her,” Walsh said, adding that Desuignes had worked diligently and followed ICE’s instructions very carefully.
Desuignes, who had previously held a green card, finally applied to become a citizen in November 2008. At that point, she was already living at Flushing Manor Care, after a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in her knee forced her into a wheelchair.
“It gives you a lot more privileges, it gives you the ability to vote, you can join a political party,” she said, adding that she planned to register to vote in time for the November 3 elections.
“Now, I can even run for office one day,” she added, laughing.
