Mercedes Pirela, 103!

10/6/1916 – 10/12/2019

Mercedes Pirela was called to Heaven on Saturday, October 12, 2019, after receiving the sacraments. She was at peace, and surrounded by her family.

Mercedes Pirela was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela on October 6, 1916, the daughter of Castorila Hernandez and Jose Acosta. She lived for many years in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she and her husband met. Later she lived in Port of Spain, Trinidad, then New York City, and finally Winter Park.

Over her 103 years, she saw the first Model T and the first seaplane from Pan Am; she witnessed both World Wars, the Space Race, the moon landings, and the Mars rover.

She enjoyed all sorts of handicraft, and was a skilled seamstress, excelling at crochet, needlepoint, cross point, and other needlework. She made all her children's baby clothes, and many of their dresses and trousers growing up, and embroidered handkerchiefs with their initials, all by hand. She continued to make intricate needlework for her family well into her 90s.

She was a devout Catholic, praying the rosary every day along with many other prayers and novenas, and her steadfast, unwavering faith inspired her family.

Her loving husband Vicente and her sister Ana precede her in death. She is survived, and dearly missed, by daughters Beatriz Pirela and Isabel Mendez and son-in-law Luis Mendez, son Robert and daughter-in-law Cecilia Pirela, her granddaughters Isabel Maria Mendez, Marianela Mendez, and Elizabeth Heaslet and husband Joe, grandson Alexander Pirela, and great-granddaughters Maria Laura Rossodivita, Rhianna Heaslet, and great-grandsons Rogelio Miguel Pombrol and Adam Christopher Freeman.

There will be a viewing on Thursday, October 17, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm at Baldwin Brothers Funeral Home, located at 1654 N Semoran Blvd, Ste 130, Orlando, Florida

The funeral mass will be celebrated by Fr. Juanito Figura on Saturday, October 19 at 10am, at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, located at 5300 Old Howell Branch Rd, Winter Park, Florida.