I've never been a mother so I can't say that I have personally witnessed that bond between a child their mom. Although I've never carried a life within me I know what it's like to hold a baby and feel the love that stems from deep within them. I know that looking into a precious child's eyes there is nothing but true innocence and undeniable purity, love.
Above is Alayda Raquel Torres a little girl whose story will break your heart. I write tonight with great sorrow knowing that I never got to meet this child of God but hoping that someday I will. I can't tell you her birthday or really much about her, but I love her. Looking at her eyes in the picture above I know that she would have loved me back, she wouldn't have known me but she would have trusted me, because she was innocent and loving, and that's what loving children do.
I don't have many details on the situation simply because I haven't had the courage to sit down face to face and ask for the details. What I've heard from others has torn me to pieces inside.
To clarify things a little bit, I believe it was actually on Christmas Eve when the Torres' house caught fire; nothing major started the fire just a simple short in wall while the family was asleep. The three year old boy woke up first and realized that he needed to get his little sister out of her crib, a crib already engulfed in flames, the little boy saved his sister as well as his parents before the entire house went down in the fire.
The doctors said that 70 percent of Alayda's tiny body was burned in the fire and her brother's arms and hands sustained some pretty bad burns as well. We all know the Parkland has one of the best burn units around, but even for them this case was too much to handle. Alayda passed at around 1:30 this after noon.
As news of this family's pain and difficulty got around, more and more of us have wanted to get something together for this family. A friend of a friend offered up some stuffed animals and for the first time ever I saw a grown man tear up telling me, "Yes, of course I'd love to take them to the hospital for her!"
Alayda will have all the Teddy Bears and Christmas presents she could ever dream of in Heaven, but it's going to take some time for this family to get back on their feet. A couple people have donated gift cards to give them, but no where near enough what they're going to need for even just a week's worth. This is the one and only time (no promises here!) that I'm going to use this blog as a means of reaching out. This family needs your help. If there is anyway that you'd like to help, please let me know.
They're currently divided up and staying with family members. They have little to no clothing as it all burned in the fire, no phones, basically nothing. The best we could think of would be gift cards or clothing donations to get them going again. This is a low income family and the family members they're staying with are as well.
God bless you all and God bless Alayda and the Torres family.
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