Alina Fuquen

Alina Fuquen passed away on February 5th 2024 in Orlando, FL at the age of 56 from cancer.

Alina was born on March 6th, 1967 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She was the oldest child of Ninfa Franco and Cesar Ordóñez and sister of Edgar, Mildred and Jessica Chacon. In her early years, Alina and her brother Edgar were raised by extended family in Guayaquil, Ecuador. They were reunited with their mother Ninfa after immigrating to New York in 1975. 

After moving to Queens, New York Alina was raised by her mother in a one bedroom apartment in the neighborhood of Jackson Heights with her three siblings. Alina attended elementary school at PS89Q and junior high school at IS145 before graduating from Newtown High School in Elmhurst, New York in 1985. She had a number of hobbies in her teenage years, such as ballet, poetry, and drawing.

Alina had her only child, Edwin Fuquen, on October 31st, 1986 with her ex-husband Jose Fuquen. In 1995 she briefly moved to Miami, Florida before settling down in Orlando, Florida in 1996, where she resided for the rest of her life. After moving to Orlando, Alina began working at Scientific Games and ended up working there for over a decade. She considered it the best job she ever had and made life-long friends there. From 2003 to 2008 Alina attended Valencia Community College, completing an Associates Degree in Computer Engineering Technology. In 2006 Alina fulfilled a life-long dream of hers: taking a long trip to Europe with her beloved mother Ninfa. The highlight of the trip was visiting  Rome and the Vatican, an important and holy place at the center of their Catholic faith.

In 2009 Alina met Elias Bigio while working at Sungard. They briefly dated in 2011 before reuniting in the Fall of 2021 and were together when her illness began. Throughout her illness Elias was a devoted and loving partner, taking care of Alina, along with her son Edwin, throughout that difficult time until her passing.

Above all else Alina was intensely devoted to her family, especially her mother Ninfa and her son Edwin, and her faith in God. Even as her illness progressed and became difficult to manage her faith never wavered, it only grew stronger.  She trusted in God, she trusted in her loved ones, and she trusted in herself. On these pillars Alina built her life; she was outgoing, loved to dance, loved to eat, and loved to experience everything this world had to offer her. While her cancer diagnosis was a shock, Alina approached it with the same focus and intensity she had approached all things in her life. She was a fighter and she fought her illness with all her strength until she couldn’t fight any more. She was loved by many and will be dearly missed.