The Stockman hearts are broken today as our dear friend Lucia Quinney Mee passed away. Lucia was like a soul mate to our daughters, an extra daughter to Janice and I.
She lived in the same cul-de-sac where we have a house in Ballycastle. A friend told me we needed to meet the Quinney Mees. They had been missionaries in El Salvador, then worked for a time at Corrymeela.
It was our daughters, then maybe three to six years old who connected one sunny day and soon were all splashing in our kiddies pool. They were four buddies ever since, walking through childhood and their teens. Lucia would have been 21 on Thursday.
We have so many incredible happy memories. Yet, I guess Lucia’s story stood out in sad and wonderful ways. Around 2007 the girls came up to a Chaplaincy night at Derryvolgie Hall, where I was Chaplain. They did their dance routine, cute kids loved by our students. Lucia’s eyes were a little yellowish… within a week she was in an operating theatre in Birmingham Children’s Hospital receiving her first liver transplant.
Lucia received her fourth liver in King’s Hospital, London the day before New Year’s Eve 2019. Sadly, she never quite made it through. For five months she has battled with her amazing parents and sister by her side. We hoped. We prayed but as her dad told us “sometimes love is not enough to hold a body together.”
Through twelve years and those first three livers Lucia has lived the most incredible, inspirational life. She became a swimming star at British and World Transplant Games. Gold medals were plentiful. She carried the Olympic torch in 2012.
She set up a charity Live Loudly, Donate Proudly while ill before her third liver transplant that encourages people to donate organs. In 2016 she organised a Gala Dinner for Transplant charities and her speech was so mature and articulate.
She also spoke at the 4 Corners Festival Banquet in January 2018 when we celebrated families who donated their loved ones organs to others.
Her Live Loudly Donate Proudly blog showed an exceptional flair for writing for one so young.
In 2017 she was the youngest in the Queens New Year’s Honour’s List, receiving a British Empire Medal. She also got to have lunch with the Queen herself.
In between all of that there were parties and pop concerts and all the stuff a young woman does. In spite of all she had to go through Lucia lived loudly and more than that selflessly. In the pool she swam for her donors whom she never knew but never forgot. She wanted others to have the gift of life she was given for those twelve years. She was a world changer.
We loved her. We admired her. We will miss her very much but her inspiration will always be with us. Our prayers and love are with her parents David and Rachel and her sister Alice. They are pretty heroic themselves.
Her dad ended his sad message today by reminded us that Lucia finished all her Live Loudly Donate Proudly blogs “you sign up, Lucia’s signing off.”
I remember you, tiny in the corner
Coming over to splash in the water
I had no idea that down the years
You’d become an extra daughter
I remember the Chinese lanterns
Going up in the New Year sky
Writing how you’d change the world
And wondering how they fly
I regret not seeing you in the pool
When, even second, you were a winner
Olympic torch and Empire medal
The Queen inviting you for dinner
I remember your big Gala night
When as well as your beautiful fashion
You spoke courage beyond your years
With articulate flair and passion
Live loudly donate proudly
Is exactly who you are
And in every dark night of my soul
I’ll go searching for your star
We loved you and we love you
You will always have our love
But for holding bodies together
Earthly love is not enough
But we will love you
For love is the best thing
Love is the only thing
Love is the eternal thing
We love you.
