Loved and Lost: Evelyn Gomez Sanchez was 'Dr. Ruth' for her pest control customers

This story is part of Loved and Lost, a statewide media collaboration working to celebrate the life of every New Jersey resident who died of COVID-19. To learn more and submit a loved one's name to be profiled, visit lovedandlostnj.com.

For years, when customers called Emergency Pest Control in Orange, the first voice they heard was that of Evelyn Gomez Sanchez. 

She listened to their woes about pesky critters and scheduled an appointment for someone to get rid of them. Some longtime customers dialed the business solely to seek her advice about their romantic life, improving their relationship with their parents, and anything else they were confronting in their lives. 

Her husband, John Sanchez, said he often called her “Dr. Ruth” and “Mother Teresa.”  

“My customers never wanted to talk to me, they always wanted to talk to her,’’ he said. “Some of my customers would just call to get advice from her. She was so loving, and at times they didn’t need service — they just wanted to talk to somebody, and she was it. That was the kind of person she was.” 

John and Evelyn Sanchez were married for more than 40 years and worked side by side at their pest control business. Most days, the Sparta couple ate breakfast together and made the 45-minute drive to the office in Orange. There they ate lunch together and later drove home to eat dinner together. It was a routine of more than 30 years.

“She was with me day and night, and my children would make fun of us that we were attached to the hip,’’ John said. “We were inseparable.”

Evelyn Gomez Sanchez died on April 5. She was 62. 

“I never expected her to leave me,’’ said her husband, who is 75. “It was supposed to be me — I was supposed to go before her.” 

Evelyn Sanchez was born in Vineland, spent some of her younger years in Paterson, and graduated from high school in Newark. She was placed in foster care during high school and moved into the home of John Sanchez’s mother, who had been fostering children at the time.   

When he met her, it was love at first sight. 

“She was beautiful," he said. "She was a dream.’’ 

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By then, John was 29, separated from his first wife, and the father of four little ones. 

He and Evelyn began to date, and several years later they married. They had two children together, Jessica and David. Evelyn also became stepmother to his children from the prior marriage, Evelyn, Manuela, Denise and Juan Manuel. 

The couple lived in Newark, and then bought a house in Sparta, which they referred to as their “Little House on the Prairie,’’ since the one-bedroom stood on more than an acre of property. 

John and Evelyn Sanchez, the children of Puerto Rican parents, were among the first Latinos to move to Sparta, he said. When the couple wanted to construct an addition to their home in the early 1980s, they had to file a lawsuit after the borough refused to give them permits. They won the suit, he said, and were able to construct a five-bedroom addition. 

Through the years, the couple celebrated birthdays and other milestones like graduations, weddings and the birth of babies together, often in their house. They also grieved the loss of Juan Sanchez’s son, Juan Manuel, who died in an accident when he was 15.

“My wife was always standing by my side,’’ said John, who serves as the president of the Essex County Latino American Chamber of Commerce.

 When she was not working, Evelyn enjoyed spending time with her children, stepchildren, and step-grandchildren, he said.

“She was very well loved,’’ he said. 

The Sanchez’s youngest child, David Sanchez, who works at the company and answers the phone, said customers still try to seek out his mother for advice. 

“My advice will never be as good as hers — she was always so positive on the phone, and just always great to talk to,’’ he said. “She was the most selfless person I know. She always put other people before her.”