On April 6, Denison University suffered a terrible loss when first-year student Maria Adela Toledano died in a car accident while returning from a weekend roadtrip to Akron.* A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a budding scientist, and a member of the Posse Program and La Fuerza Latina, Maria will be remembered by her Denison family for many things based on her short time here, but most of all for smiling, dreaming, playing, creating, appreciating the small things, changing others’ lives, radiating, loving, and looking fabulous. As Denison moves forward, saddened by our loss but enriched for the brief time Maria was with us, we send our hearts out to her parents, Daniel and Maria; brothers Levi, Moises, and Simon; and to the scores and scores of friends she made everywhere she went. Maria’s friend and roommate, Rebecca Rau of Winnetka, Illinois, shared the following reflections and a dream of Maria’s at the college’s Swasey Chapel memorial service on April 23.
Maria and I used to call our room the treehouse because it was just so much more than a dorm room. We were always happy, always safe, always dreaming, playing, and creating. Most people who came up to the treehouse had a hard time leaving, and an even harder time staying away for very long. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that it wasn’t a magical room—it was a magical girl. Because now that Maria’s gone it’s not the same enchanted place it was before, it’s just a silly dorm room. She lit up every room we ever walked into. She lit up my life, and changed me in more ways than anyone ever has. She opened my eyes and my heart and I’m so grateful to have met her and that I can still feel her all around me every day. I wanted to share with you an essay Maria wrote about her idea of a perfect world.
So now, when I think about Maria I imagine her swimming deep underwater, or playing around in a treehouse so far up in the sky that we just can’t see it. But either way—she’s somewhere nearby having nothing but fun.