Simone G. Courtines

She was private, strong and determined to beat it, without the pink ribbon brigade up her ass. She hated cheap sentimentality and platitudes. She faced it with pragmatic determination and steel. She wanted to live more than anything. She did everything she could to live, not for herself, but for her family. For Simone, her family was EVERYTHING. The point of life was to serve your family, and to love each one of them unconditionally.

For as much as she loved her family, she was the LOYALIST and FIERCEST friend. If Simone was with you, you knew you had an army on your side in the form of a 4'10 dynamo. She did not blow smoke up your ass, and was CERTAIN of what YOU should do - in the best way possible.

Her friends LOVED her and each one would give whatever they had to her.

She was a leader. A person of deep integrity. A person of honesty. A person who did not suffer fools. Her only flaw was that she may never have truly understood how much we loved her.

She was the true definition of a living Saint. She spent 33 years as a Physician Assistant working in her beloved El Barrio and Harlem. While she might complain, she loved being from uptown. And when she wasn't working, she could be found by the warm blue waters of Playa Buye in Puerto Rico. She loved Puerto Rico. It was her sanctuary to get through the sometimes difficult days at work.

She is survived by her parents, Francois Courtines, 79, and Edelmira Ventura, 84; her brothers Etienne (58), Bernard (54) and Laurent (50); her sisters Heloise (26), Elena (25) and Bernadette (24) and her brother Matthieu (23); her sisters-in-law Mona and Lisa; her aunts Alix Guyadir and her husband Jean-Jacques, and the lights of her life, her nieces Frances (13) and Aveline (11)

She was preceded in death by her grandmother Delma Martinez Ventura; her grandparents Ida Courtines, Leo-Pierre Courtines and Sixto Ventura; her uncles Hector Ventura and Jacques Courtines; and her aunt Aude-Monique. She will be laid to rest beside her grandmother in Puerto Rico.

No one was loved more, and deserved more than our sister. What she wanted more than anything in the world was to be with her beloved grandmother, Delma, who passed away in 1998.

A visitation for Simone will be held Monday, June 16, 2025 from 2:00 to 8:00 PM at Frank E. Campbell - The Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Ave, New York, New York 10028.

A mass of christian burial will occur Tuesday, June 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM at St. Francis de Sales, 135 East 96th Street, New York, NY 10128.