I believe that everybody has someone in their life that has changed their view, perspective and idea of living. A person who, from the first moment, taught you to live life. Since I was in primary school, I have had the pleasure to find and meet one of the greatest humans I have ever known, a person I wish everyone could have: Francisca.

Before I met her in person, I knew and heard a lot about her. I remember the first day I met Francisca was a Saturday evening in a field hockey club from my city. At the beginning, she was a friend of my friends, so we weren’t very close. But it didn’t take long for us to connect and become great friends. We started to share many things, and spending time with her was the best time ever.

She was and will be one of the most wonderful people I will ever meet. She represents a lot in my life. We started an incredible relationship, and that is because of my friends that allowed me to know her and spend time together. We have shared many passions, such as hockey, soccer, music and food. We used to spend almost every Saturday together watching field hockey and usually going to the stadium to cheer on our soccer team. But my favorite moments are forever when we gathered our friends, drinking Coke or “mate,” listening to music, eating “picada” and just talking and laughing all the time. Those moments are unforgettable for me.

Here comes the worst part of this story. When she was a little girl, cancer was detected in her knee. At that time, I didn’t know her, but I had heard of her story of fight and the person she was because of my friends. When I met her, she was cured and in the recovery process. Years later, the cancer was back, but this time stronger. This news was like cold water for everyone who was close to Francisca. I remember that we were in quarantine, and those times were very difficult for us to visit and be with her because COVID was pushing hard and obviously we knew about the risk of this illness in sick people. But with time and precautions, we were able to see her, spend time together and just forget about everything bad that was happening. She was fighting hard, spending a lot of time in the hospital for treatments and she was progressing at a fast pace. Suddenly, the cancer got worse and unfortunately there was nothing else to do. After fighting like a warrior, she passed away in February of 2022.

I believe that it was one of the worst moments me and my friends had to go through. I couldn’t believe it. I was completely shocked. I have been through many losses, but none of them like this one. Something unexpected in a person like her.

It took me some months for me to recover and change my perspective about what happened. Sometimes life is cruel and takes away good and young people before it’s their time to leave. But there’s a saying that “life gives its worst battles to its best warriors,” and she fought like a warrior.

Probably my happiest moments are with her and my friends. Francisca meant a lot for many people. She was special, simple, cheerful, fun, outgoing, and resilient. She has taught me, her family, friends and everyone who has known her to live life, not to waste a single second, to do what one wants despite adversity and overcome any obstacle that life imposes on us.

Life is short. We spend so much time thinking and planning for our futures that we forget life is happening now, and we need to live it. I know that regretting and thinking about the past is not good, but I would have loved to have spent more time with Francisca. We had many plans together.

There is one thing that I always think about. She didn’t know about me coming to the U.S. to study and play tennis. So, I always think about what she would have said about this experience. I would give everything to see her and talk about this plot twist in my life. But what is left is to continue to remember her in everything I do in my life, with a smile, with food, with our soccer and hockey team, and living life to the fullest.

Francisca is, without a doubt, one of the strongest, most beautiful and magical people I have ever known. She was a light that illuminated every corner of my life and she will continue to do so because it is impossible to forget her.