‘Super mom’ who recently married longtime boyfriend died in Surfside condo collapse
Ana Ortiz, a hardworking mother who lived on the seventh floor of Champlain Towers South with her son and newlywed husband, was killed after the residential building collapsed last Thursday.
“They are in heaven, and they left together. They died together,” said sister Nicole Ortiz, in an interview with daily El Nuevo Día, who added she was resolute in her Christian faith during this difficult time.
The Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed that Ortiz and her son Luis Bermúdez, 26, had been identified as victims on Sunday night.
The pair disappeared in the darkness and rubble along with Ortiz’s spouse, Frankie Kleiman. Frankie’s mother, Nancy Kress Levin, lived on the same floor, and his brother, Jay Kleiman, was visiting from Puerto Rico at the time of the collapse. The three Kleimans had been missing since much of the building fell down Thursday, leaving shards and debris where the 12-story residential tower once stood. The families occupied the units 702 and 712. On Monday night, police announced that the body of Frank Kleiman, 55, had been identified after being recovered earlier in the day.
Ana Isabel Ortiz, who was Puerto Rican, was born on Aug. 17, 1974. Ortiz graduated from the Nuestra Señora de la Providencia school in Cupey, a neighborhood in the outskirts of San Juan.
“She’s a rock star. And gorgeous, and she worked, [she is] an independent woman. And on top of that, a super mom,” said Alex Garcia, a close friend of Frankie and Ana.
It was Garcia who set up the couple on a blind date. They dated for years and built a life together. Three weeks before the condo collapsed, they had married, he told the Miami Herald.
Garcia last saw Ana, Frankie and Luis at a Father’s Day party in Boca Raton, where a group of tight-knit, diasporic Puerto Ricans congregated for a lechonada.
At the open-air pig roast, the couple spent hours chatting and laughing with friends and spoke about a private postal office they had recently set up together. They were excited about the venture, friends said.
“New beginnings,” Frankie wrote about their joint business.
People who knew the 46-year-old said she was committed to giving Bermúdez, who had muscular dystrophy and used a wheelchair, the best life possible.
The mother and son went on excursions around Florida and Puerto Rico, visiting the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Wynwood Walls in Miami, and Old San Juan back on the island. They checked out the exhibitions at Art Basel together in Miami Beach in 2019.
Once, Ortiz posted an affectionate note her son had written to her. In blue ink, Bermúdez told his mother that he loved her so much, his love didn’t fit in the world.
“You have taught me what it means to be a gentleman and to differentiate between good and bad,” wrote Bermúdez, who had difficulty using his fingers, in the handwritten letter from 2013. “I thank you for always being here for what I need, for giving me helpful advice and for raising me and helping me become the person that I am today. That’s why I am proud to be your son every day of my life.”
“My best gift ever! I love you more, Luis,” she replied to her child’s message.
This story was originally published June 28, 2021 at 5:45 PM.