Because Mari’s kindred spirit infiltrated every pore in our bodies.

When I think of kindred spirits I always think of the Anne of Green Gables movies. Anne Shirley always talked about how her friends were her bosom friends and that they were kindred spirits.

I think Mari was a kindred spirit and that is why she will always be so fondly remembered. For me, she’s the one who organically or naturally through no selfish desire showed those around her what love is supposed to look like.

So many people today put up boundaries around their hearts for fear of getting hurt. How many people who get married thought it wouldn’t work out? I wonder if when they got married they had in the back of their minds that “Oh, I have a safety net ’cause if it doesn’t work out we can get a divorce.” There are probably way too many who do.

I’ve been married to the love of my life for over nineteen years. I always tell people with as much stuff as we’ve been through we should have been divorced ten times over or that our twentieth is more like a golden anniversary because there are so many people our age who have divorced at least once.

And let’s see what Keith and I have been through. After we hit our second year anniversary I hit a low point due to my childhood. As a result, we almost didn’t make it but found a way to get through. Next, we have infertility issues where we are told the chances of us getting pregnant the ol’ natural way were slim to none. Well, God must of not been listening as I found out I was pregnant on June 12, 1999.

Then a terrible pregnancy to where I had to be induced six weeks early and our precious baby girl Mariana was born. After she turned 18 months, she had three febrile seizures in a nine months period. Keith and I got to the point that if she had the slightest chance of getting sick, Tylenol became our best friend.

Grandma started to see somethings in Mari after she was two where she wasn’t developing okay. So started the trip we went on over the next year to find out what, if anything was not okay with Mari. Then on February 5, 2003 Mari was officially diagnosed with severe classic autism.

I forgot to mention my husband also became an Army recruiter. Which meant terrible working hours. So as Mari continued to grow the harder things became with her and her limitations. There were so many times where I cried. I’d say things like I wish I never had her. Obviously those were in times of trial over something Mari had done. The bottom-line is it isn’t easy raising a child with autism.

Then, Mari comes home from her special education summer school program with diarrhea. If you’re like any other mom or dad you think to yourself, “Oh, this is just a simple case of diarrhea.” Unfortunately it wasn’t. She had contracted the worst form of E coli as it’s 0157:H7. The final blow to our marriage came on July 16, 2008 when our precious little kindred spirit left this earth and now is in heaven.

She will always be remembered for sweet smile and beautiful personality.