Date: 4/7/96
Subject: [no subject]
From: Raoul
Dear Rinconada,
Yolanda Yates. As I write this message, It's about 11pm on the night of her passing. A thousand thoughts are racing through my head. Why her? Why did it have to be her? Why so young? Why someone so beautiful, good, loving, and generous? Why the hell do these things happen. I mean, when she passed by me, all I saw was a gentle person, with that cute little smirk that only Yolanda could give. She was one of those people that you loved to death, that you just wanted to hug and say, "Thank God there are people like this in the world." I looked around her room, taking in her shoes, her posters, her tapes, her uneaten food, and I just felt that something was terribly wrong. Something was too empty. She was guileless. She was one of those people who seemed to overcome the odds, not with cunning and trickery, but rather with love and compassion. I think it is fitting that she passed on an Easter Sunday -- fitting for a soul as great as hers. I am only too sorry that I didn't have the time to not only know more about her, but also to learn from her from what I can only describe as her beautiful humanity. Her passing was eerily similar to the passing of my aunt last year, a soul that was so remarkably similar to Yolanda's that I ask whoever it is that controls our lives how he can take away the most wonderful specimens of humanity, those who are supposed to remind us how life should be lived. For Yolanda Yates, I can only say this. She was a joy to have as a dormmate and a friend, and I, along with the rest of this dorm, will never forget the short time I had with her.
-Raoul X_____
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