Candlelight vigil held in honor of Mederos
Friends celebrate life of 'sweet,' supportive fourth-year student
About 50 students held a candlelight vigil Thursday night in Bruin Plaza to remember Liza Mederos, a fourth-year sociology student who died March 15 after struggling with aplastic anemia.
Students on campus studying for finals paused to watch, taking in the figures silhouetted against the purple sky and the light of candles held in the hands of each participant.
For a gathering of dozens, the feeling was intimate.
Candles lined the concrete stairs leading up to the stage, illuminating roses and framed photographs – both black-and-white and color – of Mederos and her loved ones.
Clustered in a semicircle around the stage, students stood up one by one to take the microphone, sharing hugs, tears and stories about Mederos.
Some talked about how Mederos, who mentored disadvantaged youth, supported and encouraged them through emotional and financial hardship.
The consensus seemed to be that though many had known her for only a couple years, Mederos made a lasting impact on each person whose path she came across.
“Even if it was for a split second, she touched your life,” one speaker said.
Shawn Collins, a fourth-year sociology student who helped organize the event by e-mailing Mederos’ friends with information, recalled that Mederos helped him get his first apartment and his first A on a paper – and his first microwave.
“Every time I looked at my microwave, I just smiled and thought how sweet she was,” he said.
Following a prayer led by Collins, the group showed appreciation for Mederos one more time, as music from Juanes, one of Mederos’ favorite bands, played quietly from a pair of white speakers connected to a laptop computer.
Collins held the microphone out toward the crowd, and like their memories of Mederos, a chorus of voices lingered in the night air: “We love you, Liza.”
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