The story of “Maria’s Cards from Heaven”
We sat sharing coffee, my friend Barbara and I, as a white card fluttered from the sky into my back yard. It didn’t seem like litter…it was solitary and looked pristine. Barbara retrieved it.
Written on this index card, scrawled in pencil, began a story: “My name is Maria Julia Hernandez.” Maria wrote that she was from El Salvador, where she led the fight for human rights amid the wars that claimed so many lives. And the story ended In mid sentence.
We searched the internet, and found that Maria was a real person, a beloved Salvadoran activist. She was beside Archbishop Romero when the soldiers murdered him. She founded an important rights group, and she died a decade ago. Amazingly, when Barbara asked her niece in El Salvador, she replied that she had raised money for Maria’s organization.
It’s possible that the index card from the sky was written by a student for a history project. I choose to think otherwise. While I’m not very religious, I think that in retrieving the falling card, we may have entered the mythology of a fallen hero. So I wrote her song for her.
Click here to listen to the song: Maria’s Cards from Heaven
The lyrics:
Maria’s Cards from Heaven
(c) Mark Lauden Crosley
My name is Maria Hernandez
I’m from the savior’s land
I’ve lived a life of struggle
For my people I took a stand
The soldiers took so many
My Bishop fell unbowed
But now we’re reunited here
In the land above the clouds
Oh, my people,
We shall be free
Now I gaze down upon my home
And all the world around
I see the strife continuing
And I want to shout aloud
Instead I write my memories
On heaven’s paper cards
And drop my thoughts of hope and love
To fall in people’s yards
Oh, my people,
You shall be free
I entered through the pearly gates
Before my time had come
I drop my index cards to earth
And hope you’ll be the one
To read about my life and know
How I miss the wind and trees
My work was not yet done, alas
By my cards, remember me.
