A Mission of Love

Hi! As I begin to write this, I want to tell you a bit about myself along with a story. My name is Elizabeth Ramirez (my nickname is Meyou. My sister came up with that when she was little, but I love it), I live in Texas, and I am a home schooled 14 year old (about to turn fifteen!), and a superhero. Okay, well not a superhero. I'm an actor. But close enough, right? Anyway, I am from of a family of seven I am the oldest of five kids. There's my ten year old sister Maggie, who recently departed to join our heavenly father, my seven year old sister Nicaea, my four year old brother Leo, and then last but not least, my one year old sister Gabrielle (Gabi for short). And then of course there are my incredible parents, Frank and Jenifer Ramirez.

Now that you know a bit about me, do you want to hear a story? Alright. Let the story begin.

This particular story begins on May 19th, 2007. What's so special about this day? Be patient I'm getting to that. May 19th is the day my sister Maggie was born. To be honest, I don't remember a whole bunch from that day. But I remember, walking into the room, at the birthing center, and my dad asking me if I want to hold her. Of course I said yes. I handed my ice cream, that my grandparents bought me, to my dad and sat in the chair next to the door. I remember being handed Maggie, and I just looked at her. I thought and probably said, "She's so tiny." and "She looks purple." and for some reason I always thought babies looked "salty". So that's my first memory with my newborn sister, And where her mission of love began.

Let's skip forward ten years. Its around three weeks before Maggie's birthday. It's Earth Day and there's an Earth Day event in Oackcliff, TX , which my mom has managed to procure a table at, to advertise essential oils. It's freezing that day and we have all the kids out there. It warms up later though. The next morning, Gabi wakes up sick. And of course, being in a big family, when one person gets sick, it causes a chain reaction. So, one by one we get sick and get better. Maggie is the last one to get sick. But she doesn't get better. She ends up being sick for two weeks. Towards the end, of her second week sick, mom decided to take her the hospital, believing she needed to be re-hydrated. So she takes her in, and my dad leaves to go with them, and they come back later that day. Maggie was feeling much better, due to medication the doctors gave her. However, two days later, a Saturday morning, it all goes downhill. We all woke up that morning, and my grandparents came over, bearing gifts. Food in other words haha. We all end up playing a game of crochet in our backyard, and Maggie is up playing with us, but she can't seem to hit the ball. After the game of crochet, Maggie goes to take a nap. Later, around noon, i come downstairs to see Maggie, sitting on the couch, after waking up from her nap. I walked into the office, to talk with mom, and soon Maggie comes in crying saying,"Mom my head hurts." Mom says that she's going to take Maggie to Children's hospital. So we all start rushing around, grabbing Maggie's shoes and things and soon mom is in the car, and leaves. I don't remember when, but later that day, I'm in the living room, watching cartoons with my siblings, and dad calls me into his room. I follow him in, shut the door, and he keeps walking till he's in their bathroom, by the closet. He turns to me and tells me,"There's something really wrong with Maggie and they don't know what." At this point he's crying and i hug him. I said," Dad, you need to go." So dad left, to go to the hospital. My aunt came later to help me with the kids. That evening, my aunt tells me Maggie has a brain tumor. I thought," Okay. She'll get better." I soon learned she would, just not in the way i expected.

The next morning, mom comes home from the hospital, along with my grandparents, and goes to lay down, to try and sleep. My dad gets home a little while after mom does, along with with Maggie's godfather. Dad sits me on the couch, while I hold Gabi, and explains the situation to me. "Maggie has a brain tumor,"he said,"They don't know what kind it is and they don't know what to do." It took a lot for me not to break down right then and there, but i kept it together. I soon go into mom's bedroom with her, and she tells me just what dad said. Except her story had a twist to it. They didn't even expect Maggie to make it through the night.

Sometime before noon, Dad, me, mom, and my godmother (I call her Aunt Lani) are gathered in my parent's bedroom. What I heard next broke me. Dad said," We have three options. We can leave her (Maggie) on life support and she'll eventually pass away. We can take her off life support. Or we can put her on Chemo, but the doctor said that he promises there is something worse than death, and that is what Chemo would be for her, and even if we did the surgery and she didn't bleed out on the operating table, and she managed to survive the operation, she would be a vegetable the rest of her life." Hearing this, caused time to stop. I replied," She's not going to wake up?" and i broke down. My Aunt Lani just hugged me as I cried, whispering," I'm so sorry."

Around noon, we left for the hospital. All of us. We arrived at the hospital, and made it to the hospital, and to the floor where Maggie was. As we stepped off the elevator and around the corner, I spotted many familiar faces. To the left was family and to the right were family friends. The first people to greet us were some of my dad's friends. Their faces were full of pity and sorrow, but also something that is almost indescribable. It was love. I saw right then and there that they cared. They truly cared for us. And that meant more to me than i can tell you.

We soon were brought to Maggie's hospital room, and I just felt broken. There in front of me, lay my sister, hooked up to machines, dying. I knew it was coming. I knew she was going to die. Nicaea and Leo had no idea what was going to happen. They knew she was very sick. They knew something was wrong. But they didn't know she wasn't going to leave that hospital with us.For the kids, the day was spent, with them going in and out, drawing pictures for Maggie, occasionally crying and/or hugging her. For me, I spent every possible minute next to her, holding her hand, crying, telling her I love her. That evening, around 7:21 pm, the small, white hospital room was full of family, along with a couple close family friends, all there to watch the passing of my baby sister, Maggie. The nurses began to remove life support. I only processed seeing a few people in the room. On my left, I spotted Maggie's godmother and godsister. Then right next to me, were two close family friends. On my right, was my Aunt and my Great Grandma. Behind me, my Uncle and his fiancee, and my other uncle. And right in front of my eyes, my mother, laying in the hospital bed, with her hand on Maggie's chest, as it slowly slows to a stop. My dad is standing on the right, holding Maggie's hand. And me? I'm standing at the foot of this bed. Thinking that this isn't real. Wondering if she's aware of what's happening. As i cry, along with everyone else, my dad asks his friend," Can you sing her song?" So soon we are singing Lord I Need You by Matt Maher. Afterwards, dad starts praying. At 7:31 pm, May 6th, Magdalene Therese Ramirez departed from this world, to join our heavenly father. Leaving the room....... silent.

That night, leaving was hard. I wanted to do nothing but hold Maggie's body. To hug her, as she so often wanted me to do. But it was time to go. It was time to go home and brave the waters of loss. The whole ride home, all I heard was Nicaea crying and yelling," God took her from us! He should have stopped it!" And for awhile, I believed that. I was angry, hurt, depressed. After Maggie died, I made sure i was out of the house everyday. I was constantly busy. I couldn't handle going to church because of my anger. I nearly didn't go one Sunday.

It's been over three months since Maggie died, and I am finally at the point where I can go to church without yelling at God. I'm finally beginning to feel better about my faith. I've seen miracles happen through Maggie's death. People are inspired by Maggie. I called my best friend, who I argued with for months, and finally stopped talking to, which left me sinking in depression, the day after Maggie passed, because she had been trying to get a hold of me. And now we're best friends again. We talk everyday. Share secrets. Maggie brought me my best friend back. Maggie loved my friend. And my friend loved her. Maggie impacted people just by being kind. By loving them no matter what. She preached to them over her online game. Yes. That really did happen. She wanted to help everyone. She had a mission. A mission of love.

Now, I didn't tell you this story to traumatize you. I told you this story, to show you my sister's mission. Her mission to love everyone. To help everyone.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27

This is what we are called to do as Christians. To love. To love God and to love our neighbors.

Something I've learned this week, is that, we don't have to explain our beliefs to others, just to get them to go to church. We don't have to throw our faith in people's faces. It is important that we tell others about our faith. That we invite them to church. But from what I see, the best way to show them God, to show them our faith, is by being ourselves. By being kind. When we love our friends, when we offer to help them with school, or we simply listen to what they have to say, we are showing them our love. We are acting as Christ would.

I'm not denying it's hard. It is hard. God never said doing his will, will be easy. But by doing his will, we are walking the narrow path. And every step, is a step closer to God. A step closer to a world without pain. And a step closer to all those in heaven who pray for us.

Thank you, for taking time to read this. God Bless y'all and remember, you can do anything through God. Have a blessed day.

- Elizabeth ( a.k.a Meyou)

"The world is my ship it is not my home"St. Therese of Lisieux