Obituary

Orquidea Ortega Garcia, 81, of Tulsa, Oklahoma passed away on May 20, 2024.

Orquidea was born on June 26, 1943 in a suburb of Havana, Cuba. She was welcomed into the world by loving parents Simon and Caridad along with siblings Oneida and Oladys, she was the baby of the family. Her name means Orchids. The family knows her as Tia Cookie. She came to this country in 1966 along with other family members, learned English and had a long career as a bank teller.

Tia Cookie is resting in peace with her beloved husband Tio Ramon who surely rejoiced to see her again. Along with her sister Mima, Roly, Abuela and Abuelo in heaven.

She is survived by her daughter Vanessa who took on the role of caregiver and kept Tia Cookie alive, for many years along with help from Ronnie. Vanessa was a devoted daughter who carried out a monumental task and the entire family can not thank her enough for the way she has treated Tia Cookie. Vanessa has a heart of gold; she is unique and a blessing to us all. Vanessa adored her mother and will miss her endlessly and forever. Tia Cookie has a son, Mark who she adored all the days of his life. Tia Cookie is also survived by her grandchildren, Joshua, Avery, and Varon. As well as Matthew, Mason, Kamaryn, Ian, Bentley, and Angel. Her great-niece BreElla who stood by Tia cookies side until her dying day, even when everyone went home or fell asleep. She played Tia Cookie’s favorite music nonstop.  Tia Cookie is survived by countless nieces, nephews, grandchildren, sister Oneida, God daughters and God sons.

Tia cookie loved her Cuban Coffee and Cari made sure she had it until the end. She loved watching Family Feud on TV and loved a good dirty joke. Tia Cookie was all about family and spent many hours of her life sitting with us and telling us stories. She was generous and never did wrong to anybody. She would help anybody that was in need. Tia Cookie taught her nieces and nephews how to speak and write in Spanish. She was truly a decent human being with integrity.

We will all remember her as a gentle soul who loved to laugh and always had a smile on her face even until the very end. Our lives will never be the same without her.