Marcia Garcia

I became friends with Marcia while studying Spanish in Antigua. She was always in the same place in front of a coffee shop in the center, lying on her stretcher. I remember passing by her the first few days not even wanting to make eye contact because I didn´t want her to think I was staring at her legs. But I did notice that she was drawing pictures and so I decided to buy one. It was of a quetzal sitting on a tree branch with a waterfall in the background. She only had use of her legs and used her feet to draw beautiful pictures. I came back every day after class and stayed with her in town with another student from Michigan named Elizabeth. I am so blessed looking back now at the time I was able to spend with Marcia. I would stay and chat with Marcia and her street friends and get the lowdown on what was really going on in town. There was another guy there to who is an artist and draws profiles of people. I think he like to campout beside Marcia because she always gets so much business. She has a lot of people who care for her. The manager of the coffee shop gives her a cup of whatever coffee she wants each day. Someone is always passing by to put money in her jar. Even one of the elderly street ladies would put in whatever she could give and was sure to give her something every single day. This was usually after she goes running after high school boys with rocks which is exactly what they want. They would get her worked up by whistling the cucharacha song. At first she would start yelling and cursing at them then she would start pacing and thats when you better move out of her way because she´s full force running across the street, jumping hurdles over bushes! We had our peanuts ready and front row seats everyday at around 5 o`clock to watch the magic unfold. She always came back to Marcia to talk it out and felt much better; always putting a few coins in her cup. Christina is her daughter who is 7 years old and has the sweetest love for her mother. She would always wait till she got to her mom to eat her snack so that she could share it with her and feed her because Marcia couldn´t use her hands to eat. Christina would always offer her snack to me too. I thought it was very beautiful the way they needed each other and how such a strong love grew from that need. Christina has a compassion for others that will get her further in life because of her mother. Some people would argue that Marcia wasn´t capable of taking care of her child because of not having use of her arms but I know that little girl wouldn`t be happy anywhere else than right next to her mother. There is a story of a little girl that lived in one of Mother Teresa´s homes but would leave every day and finally Mother Teresa followed her and found that she was running to be with her mother, who lived under a tree and the little girl preferred her mother to food or shelter. At the end of my time in Antigua, Marcia became sick with a bad sinus infection--high fever and coughing up alot of flim. My spanish teacher had her niece come evaluate her in the park who is a doctor. She prescribed many medications that of course Marcia couldn´t buy, but because she is so trustworthy and she doesn´t take advantage of the kindness shown to her by others, she recieved enough to get by with what she needed. I just recently recieved an email from Elizabeth that 2 weeks after I had left she had been taken to the hospital, where they found out that she had a brain tumor. On May 2, I lost a friend. She died three days after being in the hospital and there was nothing that could be done for her. She was truly an inspiration to all those around her and brought out compassion in those that passed her by. God has made everything beautiful in its time -Ecclesiastes 3:11. I am happy to have known Marcia as a friend and not just a woman on the street.