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Remembering Marla Sánchez-Pietton
The jovial and funny Marla Sánchez-Pietton presented an image that belied her expertise as an accomplished interpreter. She had the charisma that would captivate not only her colleagues, but also attorneys and judges.
Marla left us and this world on January 25, 2010 in the airplane accident off the coast of Lebanon. She was heading to Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, to interpret at an international conference.
While she lived in Washington, D.C. with her husband Denis, who then was a French Embassy functionary and is now the Ambassador in Lebanon, Marla joined the team of contract interpreters in the DC Metropolitan area to work at a gamut of organizations and businesses, including the Superior Court of DC, where she came to offer her services in 2002. She was certified by the U.S. A.O.C. in Spanish, and she also interpreted into and from French and Italian. She spoke German well too. She is also survived by her daughter and parents.
Gathering other interpreters' thoughts and sentiments about Marla, they found her to have "talent, personality, beauty and sense of adventure." "She set the example with her fortitude," "To know her was to love her." "She had a contagious joy." "She was so young, so wonderful, so full of promise and so much of wonderful life still ahead of her to live and relish." "A real professional." "Watching her [interpret] was like watching a concert pianist." "A beautiful human being." "A true inspiration as a colleague and friend."
A Mass will be celebrated in her remembrance on Sunday, February 7, at 11:45 a.m. at the Epiphany Catholic Church, 2712 Dumbarton Street NW, Washington, DC 20007 202-965-1610. The Mass will be in French, organized by the French-speaking church community.
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