A person that gave us all more. Marcia.

Often you hear about unsung heroes. Or people that work tirelessly behind the scenes. Sometimes these people can almost be mythical as they make the impossible, possible. Some are more famous, like Santas Elves, which undoubtedly make some serious magic happen but, for some of us, we are lucky enough to meet one of these people in real life. Someone who works tirelessly behind the scenes at work to make our job successful and for people that know someone like this then you know that these people do not just care about work, but they care about you. The drive they have to work behind the scenes every day is not just at their job, it is that they are wired this way, and what they are working so hard for is because they care about the people they surround themselves with. It's not that they just want to be good at their job, but if doing their part of the job to make all of us successful then they will be the best at their job. If you are reaching this then hopefully you got to meet the person this is for and if you knew her, then she cared about you as if you were family. Marcia Rodriguez attributed to the success of many teams at FIU: Operations and Safety, Academy of International Disaster Preparedness, Environmental Health and Safety, and Emergency Management and without a doubt was our unsung hero. There was not one success that we had as a department that Marcia was not an integral part. And as a department, we accomplished some amazing feats and many "first of its kind" missions to drive our overall mission forward which was to make sure we produced the best Emergency/Disaster Professionals so they could take care of others when it was the most needed. While we were so busy as a department making sure we were taking care of our mission, it was Marcia who was taking care of all of us.

Whenever someone was talking about who Marcia was in our office you would never hear them say her title, it was always "Office Mom" or " Go see Marcia, she will take care of you, don't worry". One vivid memory we talk about with Marcia was the morning we were meeting as we had a major deadline approaching that day. Yet again we were reaching for the stars and attempting to pull off the impossible and this was THE morning. As we all sat stressed and going over every detail twice, Marcia arrived in the meeting as we needed her assistance. Immediately we jump right in full force going a thousand miles an hour and Marcia stopped, looks at each of us and says: "did you have breakfast?" A bit irritated we said we do not have time and continued with what we were discussing. It wasn't long and we sidetracked on a problem and Marcia slipped out of the room. Moments later she returned with breakfast sandwiches she got from down the street and like a good Mom in a stern voice: "I am sorry, this is ridiculous, you need to eat, people have to eat breakfast, this is an important meal, you need your energy" as she passed out breakfast to each of us. Once content that we were all going to eat, she then sat down and said "Ok, what do you need me to do?"

Stories of Marcia taking care of each of us could fill a stadium. Marcia was our rock, our backbone, our backup Mom, and more importantly our friend. A few years ago we all heard the news that is near impossible to understand: inoperable brain cancer. Since then Marcia has been through considerable aggressive medical treatments in an attempt to do what we are all hoping for, which is that miracle cure. Our once very active, jogging, bike riding, office mom has now found herself bedridden and recently enrolled in hospice. Unfortunately during this time Marcia also lost her daughter who left behind an infant daughter of her own. Simply no words for what she is enduring during these trying times.

Cancer treatment, as well as the side effects of being confined to a hospital-style bed, can be quite costly, so all of us who know this amazing woman just wanted to give something to the person who gave us all more. So please, if you are so inclined, if you would give something, big or small does not matter as every little bit can help. And if you are not in the position of being able to give we understand, we just ask that you share this link and hopefully some others will at least get to read this post about our friend Marcia and know how much of an amazing person that she is. Thank you, from all of us!