Irma Fuentes

I met Irma Fuentes on December 26, 2006. She stood all of 4ft 6in tall, if that much. Irma, a Uvalde resident and employee of the hospital there, was our “angel in the radiology department”.


You see this angel knew of my mother's leukemia and Irma had been making the 180 mile round trip to San Antonio to donate platelets when my mother had to have platelet transfusions. All she knew of my mom is that they worked at the same hospital and that my mom needed platelets. I don't know how often this angel made the platelet donations but apparently it was quite often from what other employees have said.


In the months when my mom had platelet transfusions and sometimes those platelets would be gone within the next day or two, I found myself wondering how the blood bank managed to find platelets so quickly. I marveled at the unknown heroes that were making life possible for my mom.


Irma was definitely one of those heroes and the day we finally got to meet her and find out all she had done for our mother, both my sister and I hugged her with tears in our eyes, and thanked her profusely. All our angel asked for in return was our prayers so that she could continue to donate, which she did, right up till the time my Mom passed away.