Lilia Ester Abraham

She was born as Lilia Ester Mandeville Murillo in Panama City, Panama on November 3, 1940. Lilia was one of seven children; her five brothers Augusto, Liceo, Manuel, Cesar & Cesar, and her only sister Luzmila.

Lilia attended sewing school after completing her secondary education in Panama. Her sister, Luzmila, sent for her to join her in Massachusetts in the U.S. when she was in her 20s. She initially worked in Massachusetts as a nanny and eventually moved to New York. Lilia met her soon-to-be husband, Bell, in 1964 via a blind date. They married on June 9, 1967 in Newark, New Jersey. Lilia’s husband recalls, “We were very happy and lived on a budget of $40 a week”—rent was $25 per week for a room then, before they moved to an apartment. She welcomed her son (Antonio) in Brooklyn in 1971.

Lilia and her family moved to Opa Locka, Florida in 1972, delivered her daughter (Indira) in the same year, and then settled in their long-term family home in the West Kendall area of Miami in 1976, within a neighborhood called Winston Park. Lilia took time away from work while her kids were young, but as they grew she juggled motherhood and technical school, before working outside the home again as a medical technician and then as a unit clerk/medical assistant. Lilia survived breast cancer in 1990 but developed rheumatoid arthritis, which would gradually deteriorate her body but not her strong and feisty spirit. She retired when her daughter, Indira, married, and was glad to have grandparent duties along with her husband. Later in life, she and her husband grew older and they moved north to Orlando, Florida, in order to be closer to family.

Lilia loved being a mother/grandmother/aunt, sewing, going to thrift stores, growing orchids, and buying lottery tickets. We are almost certain she spent more money playing over her lifetime than she won, despite only winning small sums which she would generously share.

Lilia was also a devoted sister to all her siblings growing up. She had special connections with each of them and was very motherly to them all even though she was not the oldest. She dealt with intense heartbreaks losing her siblings over the years, and more recently was ready to rejoin them. She spent most of her life with her younger sister, Luzmila, once she moved to the United States and it was as if they were twins, being the only two girls out of the seven siblings; she described them as having the same heart—if one of them was hurting, the other would feel it deeply. Luzmila’s sons, Rasheed and David, were also treated as Lilia’s own. Her sense of caring, nurturing, and worrying for her family never stopped.

Lilia loved sharing stories with anyone who would sit and listen. One of her favorite stories to tell, occurred when she was a young child in Panama. Her family had a goat that seemed to terrorize her and her alone, and held no respect for Lilia even though she would feed him everyday. She was always terrified of the goat; when returning from school, she would cross into her front yard and have to race inside her house as the goat chased her with the intention of knocking her down. However one day, Lilia returned home from school and the goat was nowhere to be found, it was puzzling, and her questions about the goat’s location were brushed off. Later that night at dinner, Lilia could tell something was odd about the plated meat resembling beef next to her beans, rice, and plantains. Confused, she asked her grandmother about the suspicious-looking meat, and received a shocking answer, “La cabra (the goat).” Lilia shrieked and cried, upset at the fate of the goat, even though he intimidated her from his very first day in the yard. That night, Lilia went to bed hungry. She was always a person who felt her emotions deeply and profoundly, and there was no way that she was eating that goat.

Lilia Ester Abraham is survived by- her husband of 57 years: Bell Abraham, son: Bell Antonio Abraham, daughter: Indira Abraham-Pratt, son-in law: Tyrone Pratt, granddaughter: Gillian Pratt, grandson: Andrew Pratt and his girlfriend Courtney Knowles, grandson: Terry Walker, nephew: Rasheed Mohammed and his son Zayn Mohammed, nephew: David Mohammed and his daughter Chelsea Mohammed, and many other family members.

A Memorial Service will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, August 3rd, 2024 at Baldwin Fairchild Funeral Home, 994 East Altamonte Drive, Altamonte Springs, FL 32701.

Inurnment will be 2:00 p.m., Saturday, August 17, 2024 at All Faiths Memorial Park; 1390 Park Drive; Casselberry, Florida 32707.