Loving life more than anything.
Last Monday she would have celebrated her 59 birthday. The
message of her life, the book “Se puede” (It is possible),
that she wrote six years ago with the toes of her right foot
(the only part of her body she could actually move) will be
re-edited on August, on the two months anniversary of
Margarita Lalor Cavanagh’s death, one of the most
extraordinary brave women I had the joy to meet.
Beautiful and with a captivating sense of humor, Margarita’s
fresh youth suffered a brutal “bang” when she found out, at
the age of 22, that she suffered from a cruel, progressive
and terminal disease: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
An irreversible paralysis of the body that concludes in
asphyxia.
* * *
Six years ago, when I met her, I was touched by: her
cultivated knowledge, her curiosity for the world, her love
for life, her sensitivity to the suffering of another, I was
touched by her spiritual serenity and, even under her
aciagous circumstances, her “ferrous” vocation to happiness,
keeping her sense of humor.
The re-edition of her book (written with a superhuman effort,
using only the toes of her right foot articulated to a
special keyboard that was connected to a computer, before
the silent and admired look of her family) it is an
excellent news to everyone that has claimed for it on stores
without being able to get a copy, because the first edition
was very small and soon sold out. Her case was hardly
published, broadcasted or diffused by national press.
Of our first encounter, I remember her deep light blue eyes
and her teenager smile out of the bright features of a
beauty with a singular aura. And I remember that when she
spoke I could only stay in silence. From her hardest
memories - she marked out : The moment where she overheard,
behind a door the “truth”, “It was really painful to end up
with my romance. I was truly in love, but I had no right to
bind no one to that destiny”. A couple of minutes later she
told me: “The best moment of my life was when I understood
what my path was. That was when all my inner struggles and
my rebellion stopped. I started thinking positive. One can
be really happy when experimenting that it’s God’s will what
we are living.
She told me then, her deepest desire: “To listen to people,
because nobody listens to each other. Now a days people
greet each other this way: “Everything’s fine, right?” And
that is certainly not listening. I realize that there is a
need to fill the void that people suffer.
Por Susana Reinoso
