Clifton - Alexis
Elizabeth Enriquez y Santillan got to be a high school freshman from
August of 2011 until March of this year.
After
that, she entered into the last battles of her personal struggle
against leukemia.
As
Ms. Arlene Olson, a counselor at Clifton High School, fielded a
break-the-ice question, she looked sideways at the scribbler, as if
to remark non-verbally that, though she could see the lights were on,
was there really and truly anyone home?
The
question: “I understand you all are doing some extensive grief
counseling with the students...” sort of trailed off into the mid
distance.
She
looked all around herself in the crowded gym, the bleachers packed
with students, the rows upon rows of folding chairs where family and
friends sat, then glanced back to remark that Alexis was in the band,
that she was a trainer for female athletics. Her voice, too, kind of
trailed away.
“She's
my angel now.”
We
both stared into the mid-distance again. A banner on the wall proudly
proclaimed, “No one fights alone.”
What
does one say of the untimely death of a child budding into the first
flush of young womanhood? Are there words of comfort?
The
moment – awkward, filled with pain and the embarrassment of two
strangers forced to show their emotions to a totally unknown human
being at such a time of unquiet emotions - suddenly passed.
She
brightened.
The
boys of the graduating class put together a video using their cameras
and the school's audiovisual equipment. There was extensive footage
of the hundreds upon hundreds of Facebook greetings and sympathy
notices recorded upon Alexis' death on Nov. 27 at Cooke Children's
Medical Center in Ft. Worth, where she was diagnosed with the dread
disease in the same month of 2009.
During
that time, she took 4 chemo treatments and a bone marrow transplant,
and hovered on the edge of life in a coma until she succumbed to
complications of the procedure.
At
the climactic moment, the video focused on several hundred blue and
gold balloons released in the front driveway of the high school,
flying away to the blue skies above while the kids stand below and
watch.
And
then the pallbearers – boys Alexis knew and lived among during her
short life in her hometown of Clifton – wheeled her casket into the
gym, and it was on.
All
the counseling anyone could want, words of comfort and of hope for
the living – and remembrance of a young lady who, friends and
family say, saw her Savior, Jesus, beckoning to her, telling her to
come to Him, came pouring from the testimony of her friends who read
scriptures and recalled their experiences, many of them shared with
her during her final stay in the hospital.
There
were other visitations during that final six-month ordeal, according
to her Priest.
“She
was visited by several - people – entities – Angels,” he said. He
formed his words carefully, a certain shyness creeping into the edges
of his remark, one uttered with such sincerity and guileless
innocence.
The
man said he thinks it was probably the Angel Raphael who came to see
Alexis.
“I
thought it was a girl, but wasn't a girl,” Alexis told him, “but
it was too pretty to be a man...”
He
shared with the assembled kids his wisdom about Angels.
“Angels
are perfect beings; they are beautiful, and have no flaws.”
What
did the Angels tell Alexis?
“Ask
for strength, persevere; it will be OK, but it's going to be a
different OK.
“I
think she knew it was a fight she was not going to win...She is not
far away. She was never alone; neither are you,” he admonished the
young people.
A
lay churchman named Dustin Durham spoke of her experiences, primarily
of a moment she shared with him "...when Jesus reached down and
said, 'Come here, child.' She smiled, and said ,'Yes.'”
The
name Alexis, he reminded his listeners, is the Greek for helper, or
protector.
“She's
the greatest love story ever told,” he said.
Then
he fairly fled the podium, overcome with emotion, struggling to keep
his nerve, and ignited the special incense that smells so much like
sandalwood, but is actually the fabled frankincense and myrrh so
prized by the wise and holy men of the ancient caravans that they
brought it to the Messiah as a love offering on his birthday.
Said
the priest, “About six months ago, Alexis began preparing for her
death...She began to give me little messages, like 'Father, I would
like..."
He
concluded his remarks by saying “Please, ask for all the help you
need.”
And
then he and the altar boy circled the casket, swinging the censor and
the gymnasium filled with the fragrant smoke of the ages, the smoke
of the old, old story, curling upward.
Of
the Holy Water, he said, as he sprinkled it ceremoniously, ”It
reminds us of our Baptism. We put it on like clothes.”
