Irene Marie Cuevas (Olsufka), 88

Passed on July 10, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska

Our mother was a beautiful, magnificent woman, a strong, Polish woman from a farm in Duncan, Nebraska.
She made her life about raising six kids. Never expecting or asking for anything for herself, which made you want to give her the world. She never made you feel your choices in life were wrong, just always accepting who you wanted to be and what you wanted to do.
She loved polka music and country tunes, having adventures, vacations, or even car rides with her family, never turning down an ice cream cone if offered. She traveled to St Louis, Branson, Worlds of Fun, Adventureland (you could find her in the air-conditioned bingo parlor!), Mount Rushmore, Durango, Aspen, Pikes Peak, Chicago, San Francisco, Aruba, Cozumel, Alaska, and Seattle.
She loved to garden, go for walks, and mark off what birds she saw in her yard in her bird log. She sewed clothes for us (we spent a lot of time playing under fabric rolls), made us lunch and dinner (always at 4:30 p.m.) and we always sat down at the table to be with each other.
She was sassy and stubborn and would give you the business if you started it. She loved to go have a cold beer at Rosenblatt to watch a few innings of a ballgame…and to see her sons who spent so much time there. She loved going to a movie on Sundays, the buffet and casino during the week, and those girl trips to Chicago.
She took care of her grandkids who brought her joy and was a back seat partner-in-crime with them on any car trip. She loved watching her great grandkids growing from babies to being able to give her hugs and sit with her and color. She was their Grams.
She played cards, and puzzled, and colored, and doodled any picture or newspaper in front of her. She sat in her beautiful backyard watching the birds, planes, and squirrels, and would snitch tomatoes off the vine in the garden. She always said she wanted to be a blue jay and fly and drop “presents” on the mean people in the world….so watch out! She liked to snitch treats in the kitchen too, always making us think a raccoon snuck in and got to the snacks.
She has always been here. We always knew where she was for us to gather. She has never not been here for us, for everything and she is going to be missed beyond words. She was loved, respected, and adored by us. To know she is not physically in the area around the zoo just south of old Rosenblatt, makes us feel lost and lonely. We know she is with us, watching out for us and she would never leave us completely, because we were everything to her. And our Mother was everything to us.

Preceded in death by husband, Jesse Cuevas Sr; parents, Joseph and Helen Olsufka; brothers, Emil, Clarence, Donnie, Raymond, and Eddie Olsufka; infant sister Helen and sister Dorothy Brazda.

Survived by daughters, Virginia Cuevas-Smisek (Robert Sr.), Denise Cuevas (Terry Nixon), Lisa Jorgensen (Bob), and Carla Cuevas; sons, Jesse Jr. and Terry Cuevas;
grandchildren, Jennifer Smisek and Robert Smisek Jr. (Amber);
great-grandchildren, Zoey, Atlas and Everly Smisek;
brother, Clifford Olsufka; sisters, Eleanor Boro and Joann Brazda (Ray);
sister-in-law, June Olsufka; many nieces, nephews, and other family members