Loss of a beautiful life

To be honest, I have been feeling down for some time. Life just piles up the emotion and I was having trouble wading out of it. Just today I snapped out of my funk.  I have a busy week of meetings and interviews planned, a talk to attend tomorrow and my road-running between Panama City and Colon would recommence tomorrow afternoon.

Then the phone rang.

“Oh great, Lizbeth!” I thought to myself.  It has been nice to make a research related friend... or better said, to have connected with someone (my own age!) through my project. She has been such a ball of energy and assistance to me when I go to Colon.  I had been meaning to call her and let her know I would be back on the Atlantic coast tomorrow and for the parade in Colon on Sunday.

It was not her voice on the other end, however. It was her brother.

It is still incredible to me to even write this. He called to tell me that Lizbeth has passed away. I am completely devastated. 

In research like mine, I am at the mercy of kind souls helping me. She was one of the kindest I have encountered. I interviewed a woman who gave me her name and number. I called her and that same week we met, hitting the ground running. Lizbeth is only slightly older than I am so she herself did not qualify for my study, but eagerly introduced me to people who did. She never simply told me about events, but rather took me to events. She traveled all the way to Portobelo with me for a Sunday morning mass. I met a few people at the University in Colon through her, and she shielded me from unwanted advances from staff members lol. We went to the Sheraton for a book presentation, where she took me from group to group introducing me to people, making sure I sampled the food, knew about the dances, understood colloquialisms.

We knew we were early for the book event at the Sheraton and I could not help but see the way her eyes lit up when she saw the Cinnabon next door . Unfortunately the most I can say is: I was able to treat her to a pecanbun and a lemonade to repay the time and effort she spent assisting me.

She was a person who loved life and lived to help others. I have never seen someone so happy with a pecanbun lol. She spoke excitedly with her hands and her eyes lit up each time she had an idea about anything.

This news is still very fresh. And sad. I will reflect more, I am sure, after the services on Wednesday. Not exactly the trip to Colon that I was planning…