Family in Crisis: A Year Later

A little over a year ago I wrote some pieces on the Martinez family, a group of three brothers and one sister who'd all been students of mine. These four young people had been brought here by their parents from Guatemala and within a few short years were abandoned by those very same parents, left with no one but each other to rely on for survival. These four young people exemplify all of the goodness that lies within the human spirit and their story is one that deserves to be heard.

The two eldest brothers, Manuel and Bryan, have been suffering with lupus and yet their spirits and their attitude have never wavered. Manuel, the makeshift head of the household, had gotten very sick with extreme pains in his abdomen and found out he needed to have his gall bladder removed. With a lack of insurance or money, he had decided to wait it out and save to pay for his hospital bills and operation. When I found out about the situation, I was unwittingly called into action.

I wrote an open letter to my school community telling their story and to my great surprise the community responded in a big way. In a little less than a month, we raised over $9,000 for the family and solicited the help of a doctor to perform the much needed operation gratis.

It's been a year since the surgery and Estuardo, the youngest of the four, is the only one still in school. He is a senior and will be graduating this June. Bryan graduated last year. Manuel and Esmerelda have been gone from my classroom for several years now. Throughout the school year, I've been keeping up on the family's welfare through Estuardo and I am happy to report that good fortune has stayed with these deserving youngsters in the time since Manuel's surgery. We'd been trying to get together since Christmas and last night we finally had the opportunity to share a meal and catch up, and I got the opportunity to meet the newest member of the Martinez family.

Since the circumstances of last year, the owner of the restaurant in which the three boys worked decided to provide first Manuel, then Bryan, with the health insurance they so needed. Manuel ran with the opportunity and decided to seek out the best possible healthcare givers he could find. He took a semester off from college and found specialists to treat his disease in the best possible way. Just recently, Bryan has begun to see the same medical specialists and they both had an appointment with a kidney doctor yesterday near my home...and thus the date.

Catching Up

One of the main reasons for us all getting together was for me to meet the person who the family now calls the "Fifth Martinez." Though I had known about her for a long time, it is only recently that she's become a permanent part of the family. You see, before all of the trouble started happening with Manuel's illness last year, he'd been dating someone he worked with at the restaurant, a lovely young lady named Jennifer. From what I'd been hearing all along, Jennifer was a natural fit for Manuel and she had easily become an integral member of the foursome.

A little less than a month ago, Manuel and Jennifer had gone to Connecticut for an overnight getaway. They had decided that instead of buying Christmas gifts for one another, they would spend their money on a romantic weekend together. During the trip, they had made reservations at a nice restaurant, where Manuel planned on popping the big question.

The conversation at dinner was animated, as the five of them told me all the details in shared jubilation. Manuel had tipped off the wait staff at the restaurant beforehand, and they brought the stunning ring to the table under the guise of a gourmet dessert. As the moment approached, he had set his cell phone down on the table, leaning up against a candle. The cell phone surprisingly recorded the entire scene on video, which they shared with me. I smiled through the whole scene!

During the meal, we talked as if we were family, each one of the kids sharing stories and classroom memories. I got to learn a lot about Jennifer, who clearly loved Manuel with all her heart. She had definitely become one of them, and she fell comfortably into the conversation at the table.

When dinner was over, the five of them quickly grabbed the check before I could reach for it. "How much do I owe?" I asked.

"Nada," Esmerelda retorted. "We are paying for you." I was humbled as they all reached into their pockets for their share of the bill.

"And you better save the date because you have to be there at the wedding," Bryan added.

I just smiled and answered. "Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

The four siblings exemplified the reasons why so many people had chosen to reach into their pockets to help out last year. To me, they show the side of today's immigrants that not many of us think about anymore. They didn't choose to come here, and they've been thrown many a curveball since, yet they have each other and they're happy with whatever they've got. They may not realize it, but I'm proud to know them, and proud to call them a part of my extended family. They all deserve the very best and I hope that's just what they get!

To read their story, please see:

Family in Crisis: An Introduction

Family in Crisis, Part 2: Abandonment

Family in Crisis, Part 3: Character

Family in Crisis, Part 4: Human Spirit

Family in Crisis, Part 5: Merry Christmas

Family in Crisis, Part 6: Mission Accomplished