Bittersweet

I was planning on writing about Henry today. It is, after all, his one month birthday. I posted cute pictures of him (and a few of Adele) on facebook, and was set to write about how he's been a pretty good sleeper, an excellent eater (gained over 2 pounds in 3 weeks!), and looks eerily like Adele as a newborn except the male version. Maybe I'll expand upon those details later.

This morning I found out that a dear friend in Costa Rica just passed away.

A little background: Laura Saborio was a half-Canadian, half-Costa Rican woman (though you'd never guess the Costa Rican part just by looking at her) who lived in San Gerardo de Dota (the valley that we used to live in) with Mario and their daughter Erica. Laura started a bakery a number of years ago, and every weekend would open up her deck to the community and tourists passing through.

It was mostly through this manner that we got to know her so well, as she fed us with creative lunches, pastries, cakes, pies, cookies, croissants, fresh juices, coffee, and the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. While we enjoyed her goodies, we would chat about life in Costa Rica, our travels, books and movies, politics, and the latest community gossip. She was a vivacious woman, full of life, and extremely generous.

We thoroughly enjoyed bringing students, professors, family, and friends up to her bakery to introduce them to her and to her delicious food. Everyone who met Laura walked away feeling like they had just spent time with a good friend - because, that's how she made everyone feel.

Our four years in Costa Rica would have been a lot more difficult had we not had the consistency of Laura's friendship to rely on.

A few years ago, Laura was diagnosed with melanoma cancer. This came as a shock, since Laura was a pale-skinned redhead who always did everything she could to cover up her skin when in the sun. They never found the source of the melanoma, and she underwent a year long treatment that was really rough on her. We still visited her often, and were sad to see the treatment taking the joy out of her daily living. There were bad days and there were better days, and we couldn't wait until the treatment was over.

Laura decided to quit treatment a little early because she was tired (literally) of how it was making her feel. She bounced back to her peppy self, began baking again, and appeared like the encounter with cancer was finished.

Not too long ago, it became clear that the cancer was back. In full force. Laura was given a short amount of time to live. She took a trip to Europe with her brother, and then moved into the city of San Jose to receive treatment that would only ease the pain.

We talked with Laura a few weeks ago. It was a very good, meaningful, and emotional conversation. I'm not sure we did the best job of conveying to her how much she meant to us...but we tried. During the week after our conversation, Laura took a turn for the worse and became almost unresponsive.

This morning she passed away.

Though it was expected to happen sooner rather than later, I (as well as many, many others) am really sad to know she's gone. The valley and community of San Gerardo de Dota will never quite be the same.

Thank you, Laura, for touching so many lives and having such a big impact in such a small community. You will be missed.

This picture isn't the last time we saw Laura, but it was the last time we were with her while we lived in Costa Rica, a year and a half ago.