Exilia Louis who has worked at GLA over 11 years died this morning at 7:20 AM. She continued to have difficulty breathing. Her CT Scan showed that she had metastatic cancer to her brain. I had received the results late last week but wanted to wait until the doctor notified the family to tell anyone. She was to go to the doctor this morning.
She complained of pain in her heart last night before bedtime but I gave her ibuprofen and that seems to help. This morning she was very restless but talking and even sat up and took a drink of water. She continued to be very congested and I gave her a medication to help get the fluid off her lungs but it did not have enough time to work.
I went downstairs to get some more medication and Exilia rolled over and stopped talking or making sound. The staff came running for Mme Bernard and I and we ran upstairs and she was barely breathing and her heart rate was weak.
The staff started wailing which is part of the culture here and I stopped them and said, “She is not gone yet. Start praying out loud so she can hear you!” They were too upset to pray coherently and so I told them to sing! First, Mona started singing and then the others joined in.
They sang Exilia into Glory!
Our house is a somber house today. Everyone has a headache and a heaviness in our hearts. Vivianne, her daughter, who is also the daughter of my heart, is in Pennsylvania and will return home on Wednesday.
Please pray for all of the GLA staff who are grieving Exilia and pray for her children, Gerard, Tanya (who is pregnant), Nadia (who was supposed to get married on Saturday), Fabienne, Vivianne, and Fritzner.
Fabienne who is the youngest was crying and said , “I lost my papa, and now I’ve lost my mama! it is not fair!” It is NOT fair, but as I told my staff and her children that Exilia is now with God and we should not cry for her. We are crying for us that we won’t get to talk to her and see her anymore until we see her in heaven. But it still hurts.
Posted on Mon, July 11, 2011
by Dixie Bickel