Dolores P. Menocal

Dolores Plá Menocal, 101, passed away peacefully at her home in Miami on May 30. She was born in Matanzas, Cuba on August 20, 1915 to Delia Espada and Teobaldo Plá.

She was predeceased by her twelve siblings and by her beloved husband of forty-five years, Armando Mato Menocal, a former Pan American Airlines executive and real estate broker with whom she traveled the world extensively.

Though she never had children of her own, Lolita's profound love and devotion to her nieces and nephews rendered her the honorary matriarch of a large extended family. She served as a shining example to all: a woman of wit and wisdom, a devout Catholic, and a lifelong bon vivant in every sense of the word. Above all, though, it is her compassion and selflessness for which she was most admired. When her beloved homeland was overtaken in 1959, she and her husband opened the doors of their Brickell Avenue home to countless friends and family fleeing a terrible dictatorship. For over a century, her sense of duty to family and friends never wavered.

Lolita is survived by her nieces, Nérida Varela Davidson and Aleya Plá; her nephew, Felipe A. Gonzalez (Liana), great nieces and nephews, Tatjana, Raul (Maria Esther), Ana (Jeff), John (Annette), Maya (Sue), Liliana, Raquel, Virginia, Roberto, Raul, Maria Elena, Oscar, Maria Eloisa, Gloria (Pedro), Ramón (Nery); Mandi, Ibis and many great, great nieces and nephews; quite a few great, great, great nieces and nephews; longtime friend Ony Prudhomme; caregiver of 18 years Rodolfo Ferrari; and numerous other friends. The void she leaves behind is indescribable, but the love Lolita spread on this earth will endure for eons.