Noeme Otadoy Garciano

Surrounded by family, Noeme Garciano passed away in her home on September 12, 2022, after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.

Noeme was born and raised in Camotes Islands, Cebu, Philippines where she attended Poro Central School. Always the brightest in her class, Noeme was a student assistant for her handicapped teacher. Having to support her family, she continued to work and became a domestic helper after elementary school.

She never stopped learning, however, and would read anything and everything she could, whether that be scrap newspapers or the neighbors’ thrown-out magazines. She even taught herself Tagalog with borrowed comic books. Noeme eventually returned to school and attended Camotes Provincial High School where she graduated in only two years.

Continuing to work various jobs, Noeme was a saleslady at a retail store when her husband, Antonio Garciano, saw her stocking rice and fell in love. Although it wasn’t love at first sight for her, Antonio was a persistent customer with something new in hand to buy every day. He’d walk her home from work and on that same path they walked, they eventually built a house and grew a family.

Noeme moved to the USA in 2002, settling with her family in Independence, MO. Outside her job as a sales associate, Noeme utilized her love of learning to grow an abundance of hobbies.

Resourceful, she loved to thrift. She upcycled sheets into a communion dress for her daughter by reading clothes guides and patterns. She repaired and painted furniture into her unique pieces, combining old floorboards and brown markers to fix the missing glass center of a coffee table.

Insightful, she liked to collect. Noeme collected pictures, making scrapbooks of her children’s accomplishments from spelling bee awards to master’s degrees. She enjoyed taking pictures at random and odd times often to her children’s annoyance. However, she had the insight to capture those small moments, knowing her kids would, too, realize how fast life goes by.

Determined, Noeme liked to garden. She battled against squirrels for her tomatoes and moths for her cabbages. Even though she lost every year, Noeme continued to grow her garden. She ultimately settled for harvesting green tomatoes and young cabbage, making soup in her outdoor rocket stove (which she made from old brick and one YouTube tutorial).

Though she always claimed to not have a “green thumb”, Noeme had the ability to make things grow. From the cement house she built in the Philippines to the home she created in the US, Noeme’s values of resourcefulness, insightfulness, and determination, inspired those she was preceded by (parents Eusebio and Desederia Otadoy) and continue to inspire those she’s survived by (husband Antonio and children Alexander, Anthony, Angelu, Aaron, Alyssa, and Angelika). May her soul rest in peace and may the seeds she left behind continue to grow.

Funeral services will be at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, September 16, 2022, at Carson-Speaks Chapel, 1501 W. Lexington Ave., Independence, MO, 64052, 816-252-7900 with burial at Mound Grove Cemetery, Independence, MO. Visitation will begin at 9:00 a.m. until the time of the funeral service at the funeral chapel. Online condolences may be expressed at www.speakschapel.com.