Mihri (Martinez) de los Reyes

Mihri de los Reyes, 92, of Morganville, NJ, passed away on June 9.
Mihri was born in Havana, Cuba on April 17, 1927.  Mihri was a talented pianist and taught piano to private students after high school.  She received private lessons in Cuba and studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music as a teenager in 1938 and 1939 while her father served as a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  She married her beloved husband, Gustavo, in 1950.
 Mihri was instrumental in leaving Cuba following the Revolution.  One morning, she accompanied her best friend to the American Embassy where they applied for passports for their families.  As family lore goes, Mihri and her children boarded one of the last flights out of Cuba in April of 1961.  Her husband had left Cuba three weeks earlier following his release from prison.
The family lived in Miami for a short period before settling in the Ivy Hill Apartments in Newark.    Mihri spent many days entertaining her children at the Ivy Hill Park across the street.   Later, the family lived on Norman road in Newark before moving to Matawan, where they lived for many years.
After raising her five children, Mihri first worked as an educational aide at the Mount Vernon School in Newark in the 1970s.  In 1979 Mihri decided she wanted a college degree.  She was awarded two years of college by Thomas Edison College in Trenton and completed her college degree in 1984 in Elementary and Bilingual Education at Kean University.  She started teaching as a bilingual teacher in Perth Amboy in 1982 and retired in 2003.  Mihri loved teaching and was considered by many to be an excellent bilingual teacher. 
Mihri and Gustavo traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe.   One of Mihri’s favorite sayings was, “Never leave for tomorrow what you can do today.”  That is how Mihri lived her life.
Few things gave her more joy than her fourteen grandchildren.  They all enjoyed weekend sleepovers with trips to the farm, the park, Keansburg Amusement Park, the spy museum, Cheesequake Lake, among the many.   They now will cherish these memories.   She was also blessed with fifteen great-grandchildren. 
Mihri was predeceased by her beloved husband Gustavo only 11 months ago.   She is survived by her children, Sergio de los Reyes and his wife, Anne McGuire of Evanston, Ill.; Mihri Napoliello and her husband, Ralph, of Lake Como, NJ; Octavio de los Reyes and his wife, Kathleen, of Barnegat, NJ; Gustavo de los Reyes and his wife, Annie Murray, of Baltimore, MD, as well as Patricia Pickering and her husband, Robert, of Manalapan, NJ,  and a sister, Thaly Tosse and her husband, Thor of Frederickssund, Denmark.  Mihri is also survived by her 14 loving grandchildren and 15 precious great-grandchildren.
The family wishes to acknowledge the wonderful, loving care given to Mihri and to Gustavo by the caring staff at the Solana Marlboro Assisted Living and by Grace Hospice Services.    Mihri and Gustavo thrived under their care.

There will be a graveside funeral service for Mihri on Wednesday June 12, 2019, 1pm at Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington, NJ.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Mihri (Martinez) de los Reyes, please visit our floral store.