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.”