Sixto's Day Finally Came!

At 1:24pm  today I received a call. 

Heaven came down and touched my heart the moment I heard Nieve say with a lamenting voice, “He just died.” 

Sixto was one of the most simple people I know.  His life has had a profound impact on mine not because of his simplicity, but because of his difficulty.  He has longed for this day for about 5 years now.  He has suffered horrendously with cancer that has left his face marred with inexplicable open abscesses.   

Sixto was in his 70’s, and has always had a difficult life.  He grew up very poor, working in the fields and mountains, never acquiring language (he’s deaf), never marrying our having children, and never being included.   He developed a skin cancer on his face, and if it had been treated in time, could have simply been removed.  Because of his poverty and lack of resources, the cancer wasn’t treated and literally ate away his face until his body couldn’t sustain it any longer. 

Over the years, Sixto has taught me lessons I cannot communicate with words.  Please forgive my feeble attempt at trying to communicate this.  Our visits never consisted of more than a game of Uno where I’d let him win because it’d make him smile so BIG, and we’d drink soda and eat chips.  That about sums up each and every visit.  In those visits, I learned that we all just want to be loved.  We just want someone to come along and believe in us.  We just want someone to tell us it’s going to be okay.  We just want someone to hold our hand, and touch us.  We just want someone to think we are special.  We just want someone to tell us we have a beautiful future awaiting us.  We just want someone to cry with us and laugh with us.  We just want someone. 

I am grateful I got to be that someone for Sixto.  He would tell me often that he wanted me to burry him when he died.  We would dream together of the day, and remind ourselves that God is sovereign.   Well, God is sovereign, and our dream has arrived.  Nieve, his sister who took care of him, just called to let me know I need to come burry him. 

I will be leaving on the first flight tomorrow morning, and will hopefully have him buried by midday.  I will share meaningful words to the onlookers of how greatly Sixto’s life impacted mine.  I will share of the promise given to Sixto in The Good Book, and I will pray that Sixto’s essence will remain on me always. 

I want to continue being that someone to someone.  May my eyes always be open to who those someones may be. 

Sixto, you will be missed, but it’s ohhhhhh so worth it to know you are in paradise. Thank you, Sixto, for teaching me profound truths which words are unable to communicate.  You are loved. 

Photo: I took this photo 10 months ago. I have cropped out the other half as it is very disheartening. I have
kept the uncropped photo with me as a visual reminder to pray for this day.  The sign of course read:
I want heaven.