Sarah I Kumar's Obituary
Sarah Kumar’s Obituary
Sarah Ibett Vélez Kumar, a long-time resident of Sunrise, Florida, passed away surrounded by members of her family on Monday March 5th, 2018 at 3:53 AM, at University Hospital, Tamarac, after a long, cruel but heroic battle with renal cell carcinoma that spread to her spine and brain. She was born on November 9, 1940 in Jayuya, Puerto Rico. She was predeceased by her parents, Rafael Velez (1983) and Antonia Hernández (2002). She is survived by her loving family that consists of her life partner, her brother Miguel Angel Hurtado, her two sons Kim and Tony Kumar, her daughter-in-law, Edna Irizarry and the apple of her eye, her grandson Nicholas Kumar.
Sarita and her parents immigrated to New York City when she was five years old. She completed her education in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Elementary School at PS140, where she met her long-time friend Rose Del Valle with whom she remained friends until today. Together they graduated from Bay Ridge High School. Sarah, then, went on to obtain her Bachelor of Science Degree in Education and her Master Degree in Education from Brooklyn College. She taught Physical Education in the New York Public City Schools System. She got married in 1966 to Surinder Kumar with whom she had her two beloved sons Kim (1967) and Tony (1968). After Tony’s birth they emigrated from New York to India where they lived for a year. She had fond memories of experiencing this new culture and spreading dancing to her Indian family. When they came back to the States she returned to teaching and lived in Texas, California and Florida. In addition she worked in Real Estate for some time and several other jobs to supplement her income. She was the director of Park Slope Family Day Care; she owned a sports merchandise store for a brief period of time and played softball in her spare time. She was proud of her coaching of volleyball and softball high school teams. Being mostly a single parent, her time was spent between her full-time job as a teacher, two or three additional jobs and participating in her two sons sports events. In 1993 she moved to Sunrise, South Florida and taught science in Dade County to finally transferring to Broward County where she obtained her Certification in Media Specialist. She worked in that capacity at Tedder Elementary School in Pompano Beach, until she retired in 2008.
As with her sons, she was totally involved in her grandson Nicholas’ baseball events, which she greatly enjoyed. She made a lot of friends and became the “leader of the dancing parties”, always finding new clubs and dancing venues where to practice her dancing to Latin music, which was one of her favorite pastimes.
After retirement, Sarita enjoyed travelling to Italy, Argentina and local places in the States. She loved playing cards, games and dancing with friends until 2013 when she was diagnosed with metastatic disease. The last four and half years proved to be the most challenging of her life. However, at the same time, she was able to reap some of the kindness and generosity she sowed during her life time when her family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances and even strangers flocked together to support her and help her in unexpected ways. This added a lot of gratefulness and happiness into her life. It was during these years that with the spiritual guidance of Edith and Mary she reconnected with her Heavenly Father and understood His huge plan for the ages. This gave her the peace “that surpasses all understanding” to be able to do her passing confidently with the faith in the promise we find in the Word; this promise tells us of a life where they will be no more tears and no more pain. She will be remembered as a generous, uplifting, joyful, kind and compassionate human-being who always looked for the well-being of everybody around her.
Her life will be celebrated at Alexander-Levitt Funerals & Cremations on 8135 W. McNab Road, Tamarac, FL 33321, on Sunday March 11th, 2018 at 1:00 PM. There will be a reception at Alexander-Levitt afterwards.
In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations in her name be made to the following foundations that helped Sarah financially with her treatment. They are 501 non-profit organizations that only survive on donations. When there are no donations they are unable to help the community.
Patient Access Network Foundation
Donate Online (including Matching, Tribute and Memorial donations)
You can make a donation over the phone or online
https://panfoundation.org/index.php/en/donors
or call 866-316-7263
Healthwell Foundation
Donate Online (including Matching, Tribute and Memorial donations)
To make a donation by mail or phone:
Please make your check payable to the HealthWell Foundation and mail it to:
HealthWell Foundation, 20440 Century Blvd., Suite 250, Germantown, MD 20874
◦Download and print our donate by mail form.
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