My dear friend and soulmate. I will miss you dearly, but I know you can do a lot more work from heaven. For 30 years we have known each other. We have gotten closer and closer until you’re passing. Over the last 12 months, we have formed a circle of three friends, Olga, Myriam, and myself that was priceless, and I will treasure forever. We would FaceTime almost daily sometimes for hours at a time just going over each other’s lives and supporting one when the other was down and vice versa Olgas spirit always shined. I will never forget all the joy and support she brought to my life and I will continue to enjoy and remember those moments always. May God bless you and hold you tight my friend for the rest of eternity.

Lissie Washington 

All I can say about my very dear cousin Olguita is what I remember of the sweet, happy, adorable little blonde “primita” that I saw often at our grandmother’s place and at her house when she had birthday parties.

I remember her playing with our other mutual cousin Chichi, a boy of her same age, in the back patio of our grandmother’s place. Though I am six years older than both, I also participated in their games and fun in that patio.

My last memory of Olguita in Cuba was when not long before she left Cuba our aunt Noemí (an architect) took both of us in 1961, to the small fishing village of El Morrillo in the old province of Pinar del Rio, where she was attending a construction site. I remember showing Olguita how to use rod and reel to catch fish that we never caught that day. I can still see the low wooden pier we walked that beautiful sunny day and Olguita walking ahead of me.

Despite the fact that for Noemí this trip was a work trip and I was a de facto babysitter, and not exactly a fun seeker, my memory of the day is wonderful and I rejoice of still having it.

After I reconnected with Olguita I told her of the nickname Chichi invented in one occasion they were playing in the patio: “Olguitica de Zarcalá” which later acquired the diminutive form of “Zarcalita”, and upon hearing my story of the nickname she immediately loved and adopted the nickname.

When she called or left voice mail messages for me, she would say, “Victor, soy Zarcalita”.

In recent times my communications with her not only helped me reactivate my old family affection for her, but I also learned aspects of hers such as how very bright and good human been she was, things that generated a wonderful friendship between us and a sense of mutual loyalty which in part was triggered by being of the same blood, but it is also, and perhaps more so, a consequence of the wonderful person she grew up to be.

As a child my dear cousin Olguita was adorable by the Grace of God and, as an adult, she was adorable by her use of that Grace God had given her.

I miss her constantly.