Has a Death Occurred? We Are Available 24/7 | Live Chat
Tribute Wall
Plant a tree in memory of Ofelia
An environmentally friendly option
1 tree(s) planted in memory of Ofelia Via
Provide comfort for the family by sending flowers or planting a tree in memory of Ofelia Via.
Guaranteed hand delivery by a local florist
Loading...
J
Jenny uploaded photo(s)
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
/public-file/55983/Ultra/714186a4-a159-44bd-b4a5-5096c3e9363d.jpeg
How do you summarize 79 years of a person’s life? My grandma was not your average grandma; she comes from a long line of baddies. In her final days so many memories of her came to mind as I mourned the inevitable.
I’m pretty sure I was the only kid at my elementary school with a grandma riding a Moped instead of driving a Lincoln. She had beepers and cell phones before it was cool and always had the latest tech. We always got her handmedown computers. We borrowed her AOL account the way people borrow Netflix. I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about her secret missions or what she’s offered to do when people hurt me in times past. Lol. I can talk about the time she chased down her mugger and made him regret taking her stuff. Or the time she purposefully rammed her large car into someone who blocked her in her parking spot.
She was always so supportive of our hobbies and lives. When I was into art, she took me to her work at Univision 23 and I got to see what the graphic designers did behind the scenes. She paid for me to have art lessons with one of the artists. When our private school had a video project, she took me to her video editors and our cheesy amateur video projects were professionally edited. I still have those somewhere! When Ari needed to drive 5 hours each way to Shriners she traded in her Prius for a van to make it easier for all of us to travel. I’m still driving that van now after we took over her payments. She also bought the specially designed chairs for Ari’s hip surgeries to make things easier. That’s why when her dementia journey began and she called me almost daily, apologetically asking me for help for what used to be a simple task as a techy grandma, I didn’t hesitate. I always reassured her that it was the least I could do when she had been the one to teach me how to use and appreciate technology. It was heartbreaking though. I already lost my other grandma to dementia so I knew what was coming. Somehow this was more painful because of who she was. Mrs. Independent. We called her Weewee. It was embarrassing when you’re yelling that in a store.
I remember her love for Juan Luis Guerra songs when I was little. She played Gloria Estefan cds. Celia Cruz. She also listened to a Nat King Cole album in Spanish during some of the adventures she took us on traveling the US. She loved listening to audiobooks on the road, most of which were not appropriate for kids lol. She’d rent them from Cracker Barrels. I remember when she lived in an efficiency in Miami’s Horse Country and would take us to see the horses and new puppies. I wasn’t scared of riding a horse or playing with giant Rottweilers cuz of her. I wasn’t scared to ride a bicycle with her and long time friend Lourdes from my house in Kendall all the way to Key West on a tiny piece of bumpy road shoulder one Thanksgiving weekend in high school. I saw so much of this beautiful country and Canada because of her.
Between her and our late FauxAunt Maggie, they made us pro movers. My dad always complained to them that they each had too many heavy books and moved too often. They were both alike in many ways so it’s fitting that they died at semi close intervals. (And awful. Eight months apart. My poor mom.) They both had apartments on the beach two doors down from each other for a bit there. They both would give you whatever they had if you liked it. They both were married to their jobs. I will say I was way more scared of my grandma than Maggie. Nobody likes to tell the negative side of someone whey pass away but she would proudly tell you herself about her famous “Hey!” that straightened all the noisy kids out. It didn’t work for great grandkids tho. There were too many of them.
In recent years when she lived with us, every time she saw me come up the steep stairs, she would gasp at the amount of laundry and the frequency at which I had to do laundry. That never stopped her from jumping in and helping me fold 4-5 baskets of clothing, towels and sheets. Same went for dishes. She made a huge mess of water when she did dishes once she had dementia but I couldn’t make her feel bad. This was a woman who upon hearing I had bleeding when I was pregnant with Emma, jumped in a car and drove overnight to Georgia to be with me. Took a little nap on the couch and left right back to Tampa when she knew I was ok and Emma was ok. Knowing that this was the same woman who was a harsh mom was weird. Like she potty trained her 4 kids at gunpoint practically. She was so different older. But always strong. She told me stories of her thighs bleeding from walking to places when she got here to the US from Cuba, married and pregnant at 17. She was young but she received a lot of people from Cuba at their small home and stretched the food until those family and friends could get out on their own. She had so many jobs and would say “Except for prostitution, I have done it all.” I remember she’s said she had a job at home where she dressed wicker alligators for a side hustle (Flori-duh). She had studied massage therapy and took me to her classes since I always had an interest even when I was younger. Around the same time, she took me to her ASL classes at night when I was like 5. I remember from when I was little, she’d always ask us to hit her on the back with a hard brush. Sensory input I guess.
The only time I ever saw this beast of a grandma cry, was because of me during my separation. She knew the pain of divorce but she also knew the strength of getting past it.
I know how to organize because of her. She had tremendo collection of movies and cd’s in one of her efficiencies. Organized alphabetically and probably by genre. They were all illegally downloaded and recorded on vhs or burned to cd’s. I’m telling you this woman was something else.
And I can’t stop crying thinking about the fact that I was finally going to brave seeing her again in September. Last time I visited her I cried so much from seeing her vastly more losing her mind. My grandma was so independent that when she started struggling to live on her own, she went shopping for assisted living facilities with my aunt and mom. She didn’t want to have us take care of her. I mourned losing her then and every day since. She was already starting to be a different person. She stopped driving. She did some major Swedish death cleaning even though she didn’t know that was a thing. Ask me how many random items she gave me that I didn’t really need “Si no, mandalo pa’ Goodwill” I heard over and over again.
Most of her birthday cards, Christmas cards were simply signed “Love, Weewee” and would usually enclose cash or a deposit slip showing she had deposited money in the bank account she had helped you open. That woman loved opening and closing bank accounts lol I don’t think of her as a sentimental woman but if you saw her files of what she kept from her friends and family, you’d see it. She also kept records of family trees. I now know she’s related to a brave woman who served in Cuba in the 1800’s. Weewee had so many bucket list items she didn’t get to do and it makes me so sad for her. She did get to do indoor sky diving like 3-4 years ago. Her original plan was to go real sky diving when she turned 60. Unfortunately she ended up in the hospital that same day with a mystery illness that was later diagnosed. She lived in the Dominican Republic for a while to support her retiring early to relieve the stress. She had an autoimmune disease that was aggravated by stress. As you can imagine she was a workaholic. I have slept in a conference room at the news station in Miami where it was -20 degrees, on an air mattress to be safe from a hurricane that never came. I got to go to the youth fair on the first day when the tickets were only for VIPs. We got to go to sporting events with tickets she’d have from work. So many opportunities I never would have had if it weren’t for her. For all 6 of us grandkids, she promised to take us wherever we wanted in the continental US for our 13th birthdays. I wanted to go to Colorado. She made me an offer to go to Quebec if it was skiing that I was interested in. She said it was cheaper there. I was like heck yeah cuz I had never been outside the US. I had never flown in an airplane and I had never seen snow. I got to do all 3 at once. One thing she liked to do on all trips was starve us. We’d eat hotel breakfast and then when we’d all, adults and kids, start complaining about being hungry around lunchtime, she’d be like we just ate. Lol. She did hesitantly feed us but like she thought it was ridiculous cuz we were going to have dinner later. I think since she had a steady diet of candy and the plastic leaching from chewing on Cuban espresso cups, she just didn’t need lunch on these family road trips. She almost always got peach gummies or those transparent hard candies that if you weren’t careful you’d swallow them whole. They were so slippery. Her favorite thing when she wasn’t traveling was sweetened condensed milk with Rice Krispies. She hated vegetables so she drank v8 juices, which I can’t tolerate even tho I pretty much eat anything. Sometimes she would collect anything green she found in produce and make a green soup and chug that. That’s hardcore. I can eat a salad. I can’t drink one. She wasn’t much of a cook though. Her idea of cooking when we were kids staying with her for a night was boiling tortellini and pouring Alfredo sauce on it. She’d offer you her freezer burned, store brand chocolate ice cream. And then we’d watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Or a weird George Burns movie that wasn’t for kids. Again, not your typical Cuban grandma slaving over a hot stove to make you frijoles and watching novelas.
I went camping with her twice. Once I got the worst sunburn and bad mosquito bites. The other time was in the Keys I think during high Portuguese man-o’-war season. Thankfully no stings.
When James was born, she told me his big feet looked like “un ramo de plantano” (a branch of plantains). She would tell me “ignorance was bliss” anytime she heard me go on about car seat rules we have to follow nowadays.
She had this St Francis quote taped in her room here in our house “Necesito poco y lo poco que necesito, lo necesito poco” which translates to “I need little to live, and the little that I need, I need only a little.”
J
Jenny posted a condolence
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
When she learned that I was permanently leaving Florida without ever seeing Miami (and she knew it was one of my regrets) she made it HER mission to get me there). She drove me to the Bacaro’s house for a weekend. She arranged for Kiki to take the time to give me a tour of the city. That was such a gift and also I became a family friend since that visit to Miami 10 years ago! What a gift she gave me!
Judith Toro
J
Jenni Buckley & Candice Baker planted a tree in memory of Ofelia Via
Friday, July 29, 2022
//s3.amazonaws.com/skins.funeraltechweb.com/tribute-store/memorial-tree.jpg
Sending you so much love during this hard time. Your mother was a beautiful soul! May she Rest In Peace. Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree
Please wait
V
The family of Ofelia Via uploaded a photo
Friday, July 29, 2022
/tribute-images/cropped/10505/Ofelia-Via.png
Please wait
Copyright © 2024 | Terms of Use & Privacy Policy | All Rights Reserved