Lidia Omaira Tesis

—1955-2008

If Your Heart Is Full Of Love
You Will Speak Of Love

—Mother Teresa

Omar’s sister, Lidia Omaira Tesis, was one of our first volunteers. Without her help, Everyman Panama may never have started. Year after year, she worked tirelessly and selflessly for those people dispossessed of any immediate hope of a normal life.

The selfless service she performed on behalf of Everyman Foundation is so much more significant when it is understood that she had very little herself—living a frugal and humble life.

But while Omaira had little materially, she possessed a heart so filled with love—she gave of herself to others, without hesitation—always. And, with complete love.

Sadly, Omaira died just before our 2008 Christmas Program was about to commence. In memory of Omaira, the regular community Christmas parties were suspended and instead a vastly extended food basket distribution took place in her honor.

IN MEMORIAM

We dedicate these verses from the poem In Memoriam A.H.H. written by the English poet Lord Tennyson in 1849.

It is a requiem for the poet's friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly. But it is also much more—it is a meditation on the search for hope after great loss.

The lines in Canto 27 speak to the pain of love seemingly lost and make us think of our beloved Omaira:

    I hold it true, whate'er befall;
    I feel it when I sorrow most;
    'Tis better to have loved and lost
    Than never to have loved at all.

The lines in Canto 54 speak to our feeling of inadequacy when it comes to coping with the passage of life and they too make us think of our beloved Omaira:

    So runs my dream, but what am I?
    An infant crying in the night
    An infant crying for the light
    And with no language but a cry.

Rest In Peace—Omaira