when people do good things

Diana Lopez, age 15, is disabled, restricted to a wheelchair, and lives at the Sub-Acute Saratoga Children's Hospital. She told the staff there several months ago that her dream was to have her own quinceanera party, the traditional coming of age event for Latina girls at fifteen.

Guess what? Over 33 businesses and individuals donated services. Over 20 experienced volunteers from the East San Jose St. John Vianney Catholic Church made it happen. The quinceanera traditionally starts with a Mass. Since Diana couldn't make it to the church, the Mass came to her. She and her friends took the floor in their wheelchairs for the first dance.

One of the volunteers was Seema Cicerone, who is Jewish, but who lived in Mexico for a time and recognized the parallels between the quinceanera and the Jewish bat mitzvah all of her daughters experienced. She got a number of her friends together and raised the money to cover the costs for various parts of the event.

Many of the adults there were in tears. I was in tears when I read the original San Jose Mercury News article, and I'm in tears as I write this.

People do good things.