God Chose Maria 

That Maria had endeared herself to so many was evidence by the line in which Jennie and I stood during the previous evening’s visitation that wound its way from where Maria lay in the church’s original sanctuary, into the hallway, and all the way down to Fellowship Hall. People of all ages and abilities, including many of Maria’s classmates in wheelchairs, waited thirty minutes and more to pay their respects.

I wrote in my journal the next morning, “A lot of love in there last night.”