Noemí Estevez

Noemí Estevez Núñez - Eulogy 3-13-2024

My mother was a remarkable woman. She touched the lives of everyone she encountered, and I am grateful to share a tribute to her extraordinary life.

My mother’s journey began with courage and resilience. At the age of 15, she left her home in Cuba, embarking on a new life in the United States. She did not speak English, She did not know what her future would hold. She faced the challenge of adapting to a new country, assuming the role of a mother to her younger brother, while supporting her father – who himself was grieving after being forced to leave his wife and son behind in Cuba. My mother would often tell the story of seeing tears flow from her father’s eyes on those first dinners in the U.S.     My mother embraced every opportunity that the United States offered her and never returned to her homeland of Cuba. The hardships she endured in her early life, served to make her a pillar of support for our family. In her professional life, my mother was a successful entrepreneur, owning a successful business for 30 years.

My mother was also known to be an empathetic landlord, engaging with her tenants until days before her passing, hand collecting their rent month after month, and never passing up on the opportunity to sit with them for a cup of Cuban coffee in their living rooms.

Those who personally knew my mother, knew that the passing of my father, left an irreplaceable void in my mother’s life. My mother navigated life’s trials, hand in hand with my father during their 45 year marriage. But it was her unwavering dedication to keep her family united that was undoubtedly her most profound Achievement.

The values and principles my mother modeled for me will live on in the way I parent my children, and I have no doubt will be passed on to the next generation, in the way, I know they will parent their own children.

The amount of time I spent with my mother over the last decade was truly precious. But the truth is, I stood on the shoulders of my mother. It was because of her, that I was strong. It was because of her, that my dreams, and my life could be big.   When I close my eyes and think of family…..   •I will always see my mother • I will remember her Sunday Cuban dinners. •I will see our family vacations. •I will remember the wind of the beach •I will remember the elaborate birthday parties she planned for me and feel the itchy lace dresses she forced me wear as a child. •I will remember that last thanksgiving table setting she helped me plan, and the ugly candles she required that I use. •I will hear that Cuban accent, and her unsolicited advice, always guilting me into doing the right thing   • When I close my eyes and think of my family,  I will see it all – and it will endlessly replay in my memory, until my last day on this earth.   • Moments before her passing, her brother played a song for her.

“Gimme a ticket for an airplane….. Lonely days are gone,… I am going home.…” perfect departing words.   Mom, may the streets where you are now, be paved of gold, and the work you have done here, on this earth, speak for you.

Kayla, Kristen, Kyle, and I, will miss you, but your memory will always serve as a blessing.

Good bye my beautiful mother.