By Angelica Ingunza

There are some people you admire for something.  Sometimes it is for their courage or for their work, for their honesty or for their will to live.  That I will call “faith.”

That is the case of my friend Gabriela.  She got lupus before she was married.  She was really sick, but she always believed that God would help her.  Her boyfriend proposed marriage to her even when he saw her with no hair or nails, and all her body covered with bruises.  I give a  thumbs up to this guy.  Another one in his place would have left her as many that I have known did.  He demonstrated for her a real love.  He worked in the Air Force, and he gave her his health insurance.

She got treatment for her illness and one year later, she felt better and then the unexpected happened.  She was pregnant. The doctors had told her that because of her illness, she couldn’t get pregnant.  But she always thought that a miracle could happen.  All her doctors said that she had to abort the baby or she would die.  She took the risk.  She knew that God would help her.  Five months later, her family took her to the emergency room.  The doctors said that they couldn’t feel the baby’s heart.  They had to do surgery because maybe the baby was dead, and they would try to save Gabriela’s life.  She had only one percent chance of living.

What was the miracle?  Both lived!  The baby weighed only 700 grams, and she was put in an incubator.  Now that baby is 20 years old, and she is adorable.  Currently she is studying to be a doctor.

This isn’t the finish.  Eight months ago, Gabriela had an accident.  She broke her hips.  The doctors said that it was going to be very difficult for her, and maybe she would never walk again.  But her willpower and her faith made sure that she did walk again.

How much I admire her!

ANGELICA INGUNZA came from Peru 20 years ago after graduating from university in Peru as a graphic designer.  She lives in in Flushing, and studies English in the Consortium for Worker Education/Workers United Education Program.  Her teacher is Jackie Bain, and the program director is Sherry Kane.