Luis Marcos Arguello

A trip to the ICU is not where you’d expect to have a family reunion. Luis was admitted into the hospital in February of 2010 after having chest pains and numbness on the right side of his body. Had he gone a day later he would’ve a day too late. However in the midst of that he was with his family and he was laughing. But that was not the first time he beat the odds.

In the small town of Linares, Nuevo Leon, Mexico fifty-three years ago, Luis Marcos Arguello was born two months premature. On a Wednesday night, October 7, 1958, in a home without doctors, without medical equipment, without technology, and without medicine he took his first breath. He was so small most people did not think he would make it. However God had bigger plans.

As a child he excelled in just about everything so much so he even won an award for Bible memorization on the book of Revelation. But just because he did well in school does not mean he wasn’t able to make friends.

Luis Marcos may have been quiet but he was very charismatic. People around him could not ignore his affability. He loved to tell and hear stories; notably his favorite past time. Although it was easy for him to make friends it was not easy for him to let go of them. We know this to be true because some of those friends are still his friends today. As much as he loved and cared for his friends, nothing came close to his family.

For his daughter Claudia, his first born child, her favorite moments with Luis were sitting on his couch holding his hand. They were each other’s best friends and they could tell each other anything whether it was good or bad. Most cherished moment for his son Marcos, was how his father always showed him he loved him by always calling to check on him and telling him he loved him every chance he got. Marcos was very moved of how proud his dad was of him being his son. He remembers being a young boy and his dad would take him everywhere and would tell everyone that he was his son and how proud he was of him. Luis’s friends would joke around saying “That can’t be your son because he is not ugly or short like you” and Marcos would yell, “He is my dad!” As Marcos grew up, he in turn was also proud to say that Luis Marcos Arguello was his father. Every chance he got he would take his friends to his father’s house to show them who his father was because he too was proud and loved his father very much! For his daughter Lydia, her most cherished memory was when her and her father took a week-long trip to Mexico and she got to spend hours with him in the car giving her time to get to know him even more. They spent the time talking, listening to music, and eating junk food. Occasionally when she would fall asleep she would wake up to him holding her hand, making her feel so loved. As for Alejandra, his youngest daughter, she remembers waiting for him to come home every day. When they lived in a trailer home they had a couch set up right next to the door. She could hear her dad pulling up to the house thanks to his music, so she would rush to the couch, stand on the arm rest to prepare herself for when he opened the door. When he did open it she would jump off the couch with all her might and wrap her legs and arms around him and yell how much she missed him! Seeing her dad come home every day was the favorite part of her day. For his son Marvin, Luis meant the world to him. He was the greatest father in the universe. He taught Marvin everything from riding a bike to driving. He was always there for him whether he needed directions, food, medicine, and even a haircut. But he wasn’t only the greatest father he was also his best friend with whom he would do everything with. They would watch TV, movies, sports, and go to the gym together. He took him to the circus, a wrestling event, and a monster truck show. Every Sunday they would watch football and just hang out all day and if they weren’t watching it together they would call each other to talk about all the games they saw and the final scores. Marvin always looked forward to Sundays because of him. And to add to all these memories was Luis’s undeniable excitement about being a grandfather.

As for Luis Marcos’s friends and family his door was truly always open. The truthfulness of that statement is evident by the number of visitors he had in the hospital on Wednesday September 28 – October 3, 2011. He never left his family wondering if he loved them, he lived life to the fullest, and took every opportunity to say “I love you” to the people closest to him. A quality we should all recognize and live by.

“We will always remember you Marcos, A Pa, Hijo, Primo, Tio, Nieto, Feo, Pelon, Panson, Viejo…”