week 53: a very sad week (june 15-21)

r.i.p. magalis: something happened this week that i hoped i would never have to write about or experience in my time here, but we lost one of our little pequeñas... magalis. magalis was a newer kid... she has only been here for about 3 months, but nonetheless was a part of our family. she was 8 years old and hiv positive. early this week, she developed the chicken pox... a very bad case... completely covering her body. on tuesday night she was placed in our clinic because she was having trouble breathing and in general just not feeling well. she slept in our clinic, but at about 5:00 am on wednesday morning the nurses decided to send her to the hospital in san pedro. the doctors were wanting to transfer her to the capital, but unfortunately she didn't make it that long. she passed away at about 9:00 am. it was extremely unexpected and a first for our nph home in its six years of existence here in the dr. it was a very hard and sad day. the word started to spread in the midst of our kindergarten graduation and for those of us who knew, it was hard to continue to sit through the show. by lunch time, the word had spread to most of the children, who didn't quite know how to react. we tried our best to talk to the kids, but honestly we were all in shock too. they were able to transfer her body back and contact some members of her family, including her father. we had a period of silent prayer and then a funeral mass. it was the hardest to see her father. he lives in a town just about 30 minutes away and had brought magalis to nph about 3 months ago. being hiv positive himself, he is also very sick and unable to work and after her mother died he brought her to us, hoping that we could provide her with a more stable life. it was his only daughter and as he stood weeping over her coffin, we all felt his pain.

after the funeral, we piled in all the buses and cars we have and took as many kids from the orphanage as possible to the cemetery. it was quite an experience. in a dominican cemetery there are above ground graves and basically it’s just a hollowed out rectangle of concrete with one open side to slide the coffin in. then on the side there are more concrete bricks and extra water and cement powder to create the mortar. so the family members slid the coffin in and then a few guys worked to mix the cement and water... then they basically closed up the grave brick by brick. there were probably over 200 of us standing around watching, crying and singing songs while they laid her to rest.

it all happened so fast. from the time we heard about her death, to the funeral and then she was in the grave… all within a span of less than 9 hours… so there wasn’t a whole lot of time to process everything. i do know that it put everything in perspective, though. with my last week approaching, i know that i was starting to get stressed wanting to get everything done. i have been having a lot of problems with paola who has been starting to get upset that i am leaving soon, i was at my wit’s end with the stupid flies that are everywhere, and then someone stole a big chunk of my money out of my office, so i was upset about that. basically i was just irritable and ready to come home, but after all this, i realized how small and petty most of the things are that we worry or stress about are. during the funeral our director told the kids that we can all learn from magalis that we never know when God will call us home and it’s why we have to make the most of everyday. you never know if that person next to you is going to be there tomorrow or when we ourselves will have our last day. life's too short to sweat the small stuff.

it doesn't seem fair or right that she had to be taken so young, but and now we know that we have a little angel up in heaven, always watching over us and our home.

rest in peace magalis.


"somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. do it! i say, whatever you want to do, do it now! there are only so many tomorrows." - pope paul IV