About Andrea

Andrea’s story cannot be told in a few paragraphs, but her brief life will forever remain a testament to endurance against adversity, courage against pain, and the remembrance of her ever-present smile against all odds.

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Diagnosed at an early age with Lupus, she continued the busy high school activities with the normalcy of a popular teen. She went on to graduate with honors and received her teaching certificate from North Texas State and became an elementary school teacher. The eventual loss of both her kidneys due to years of Lupus forced her to continue living with dialysis but never quitting her teaching job. When her years-long wait for a kidney transplant ended, she faced the opportunity of a new and normal life with optimism and gratitude. The kidney Andrea received was one of two donated from the same donor. Both recipients contracted lung cancer less than a year after the transplants. Andrea bravely attended the funeral of the second recipient knowing she might face the same fate soon.

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That fate came on April 21, 2013, when Andrea’s soul and struggle left this earth surrounded by all her family. She spent so much time that last year of her life at Baylor All Saints Medical Center that after her death, hospital nurses erected a memorial to Andrea’s memory with a cross on a wall on her floor. Andrea had two memorial services, the first in Arlington where her school and medical families joined her family in celebrating her life, and another service in Brownwood, where Andrea was born and her family and friends said good bye to her.

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According to her wishes, Andrea’s ashes were divided into portions and scattered at a family memorial service in the Pacific Ocean and in her final resting place at Jordan Springs Cemetery in Brownwood.

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Andrea’s life of teaching, which she gave in spite of years of pain and suffering serve as a lesson for all who loved her and for all she met. She was not only an elementary school teacher who loved her kids and taught them to aspire and dream, she was also a life teacher to her family and friends whom she left with the lesson of strength and courage... all embodied in, and delivered with her beautiful smile.