My cousin, my sister

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I was born in 1990 in Lima, Peru, 4 years later, my cousin, Lucia, was born. I remember how excited I was to have a female cousin, my family is really close so we used to see each other frecuently, I remember my aunt's big pregnant belly. When Lucia was born, we all were very happy, but something wasn't quite right. I've only had been 4 years old, but I could perceived the concern of the grown ups in my family. Either way, I was determined to love my cousin with all my heart and so I did. When she was born, the doctors said she could have Down Syndrome, but that was discarded after some exams. She was growing up and started to use the baby-walker, she used to run all over the house, her first word was "mom". We used to play togheter with my other cousins, we loved to play Power Rangers and we always asigned her the pink Power Ranger (because it was the best female power ranger of course). When she was a year and a half or two, she started to lose basic functions, she stopped run in the baby-walker, she couldn't grabbed things like she used to, etc. As a close family, the preocupation became bigger. My aunt and uncle take her to many doctors, but they didn't received a proper diagnosis, some doctors said it was brain paralysis, others said autism, etc. My aunts decided to believe in the brain paralysis diagnosis, one of them lived tortured thinking it was her fault because she dropped her once. So they hired a language terapist, they took her to a physical therapy sessions, thinking that she could get better. My mom and I used to go to my aunt's house after school and I used to join my aunt (Lucia's aunt and caregiver because my other aunt, Lucia's mom, worked all day long) and Lucía to her physical therapy, I carried the bag and my aunt hold Lucía in the taxi. I was just happy to be with her, playing and developing our own communication system. We all were growing up, I've always was listening secretly when my aunts (my mom's her sisters) and my mom when they talked about Lucia's condition. I also remember asking my mom what was happening with Lucia, what was that she had, but my mom never couldn't give me a straight answer, she tried to explain me in her own way tough. In 1998, more or less, an Spaniard Rett Syndrome specialist came to Lima and my uncle and aunt reserved a appointment with him. Finally, Lucia had a correct diagnosis, but they were reserved, obviously I overheard so I learned Lucia's condition name. My bonding with Lucia was amazing, we laught together, we danced, we watched tv, etc., she became in my sister. Knowing the diagnosis was important, then other complications appeared (respiratory, gastrointestinal complications, epilepsy, etc), I promised god I will pray every night conciously if Lucia get well and I did that for many years. The doctors said she would live for no longer than 15 years, I overheard this and I was shocked, I never told anyone how I felt but I remember that I made the promise to love her and spend all the time posible with her, just giving her love. The last 7 or 8 years with her were really hard, she has suffered many complications, operations, etc., I don't want to recall those years. She left us when she was 19 in 2013 and that disease made us experienced the best and the worst experience, I prefer to remember the good things, all the lessons my cousin taught me, all the good qualities I could have are because of my experience living with her. I will always remember her smile, the sound of her laugh and her gaze. I would like to share my story with you because I think we use to focus in the pain these kind of diseases bring to us, but I think we use to focus in all the lessons that we can learn and make something good about it. These angels have a purpose in their life which is make us better humans.