Mrs Armanda Matilda Reyes passed away in her home on December 16, 2017 at the age of 84.

Armanda is survived by her three sons Felix Jr, Nestor and Isaias Reyes, three grandchildren Peter, David and Sophia and her great grandchild Madison Reyes (all who reside in New York). She is also survived by her nieces Kimberley and Barbara as well as her sister Manuela and Bernardina who reside in Florida. Her brothers Eloy and Urel Hodge presently reside in Cuba. She is preceded in death by her husband Felix Reyes and her parents Nestor and Madeline Hodge.

Armanda was born on June 18th, 1933 in San German, Oriente, Cuba to Nestor and Madeline Hodge. She emigrated from Cuba to NewYork in 1955. She met and married Felix Reyes from Bayamon, Puerto Rico in June 1958 in Bronx New York . Armanda was a very accomplished person. She attended and graduated from City College with a master’s degree in Social Work. Armanda worked as a civil servant for over 50 years and was very dedicated to her work.

Her children remember her as a kind, gentle, patient, and a driven woman who encouraged them to pursue their goals.

Armanda loved life, loved to read, dance, cook and loved current events and loved to keep up to date with friends and family chatting on the phone. She was a generous, witty, a dedicated mother, aunt, grandmother, great grandmother who will be missed by all.

The family would like to thank you for your attendance.



When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

Maya Angelou