Glorified by Gloria

This isn't fashion related at all. And yet, the story of this brave and amazing eleven year old girl has touched my heart more than I ever could imagine.

Gloria Strauss was - is the daughter of the Boys' Basketball coach at my high school, and he taught Spanish as well. I never got the chance to personally meet him, but from what I hear he sounds like an amazing, funny, and smart guy, as I am sure the rest of his family is as well. He is married and has seven kids - Alissa, 13, Gloria, 11, Maria, 9, Joseph, 7, Anthony, 5, Samuel, 3, and Vincent, 10 months. Four years ago, the family found out that Gloria had a serious form of cancer called neuroblastoma. For four years, they struggled with this disease, trying a stem cell implant, chemotherapy, and various other experimental drugs. when this did not work, the Strauss' turned to the only option they had left, their Catholic faith. Faith and the Strauss family go hand and hand and you do not have one without the other. So instead of putting Gloria through the pain of more treatment they opted instead to put it into God's hands. For all that they had gone through, Gloria surpassed her expectations of living on prayer and courage. Since finding out about the plight of this young girl, our entire school prayed thousands of times a day for her and her family and her healing , and we held many fundraisers hoping to help with medical costs. The only thing they could do was pray for a miracle, and pray they ( and we) did. I don't care if you are Catholic/Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/Atheist/Agnostic/practicing/non-practicing, but the faith and determination and trust that this girl had astounded me every day. She taught us all how to live and how to love, and above all she was so selfless. Even when, for the last month of her life when she was in the hospital (after she suffered a heart attack and seizures at her home and spent several weeks in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator), she constantly prayed for others who were sick and put the needs of others before her own. this kind of love and generosity puts into perspective for me what it means to be a good person. On the night of Thursday the 20th of September (Doug Strauss' birthday) I prayed that I would learn to slow down and stop stressing about college deadlines and all my schoolwork, when Gloria Strauss was so selfless and praying for others instead of worrying. And on the morning of September 21st, Gloria Strauss passed away at about 7:00 in the morning. When they told us at school, people (including myself) openly cried and it was a sad and exhausting day. Ironically, in most of my classes we did nothing but the day felt three times as long as we all cried and mourned an grieved. Cynics will say that all our praying was for nothing and that Gloria did not receive her miracle. But she did. She now has received a completely healed body, and there is no doubt in my mind she is in Heaven with God, having a dance party and leading everyone in karaoke. Gloria would not want us to be sad, but rejoice that she is Home with her Father. This special girl has taught me so much in the three years that I have known about her, and it warms me to know that she is the reason our school community came even closer together in support of each other.

* You can read more about Gloria here.*