Celebrating the Life of Jackie Carrizo Campos, CMP Facilitator
I shared the following email about the loss of Jackie Carrizo with our Facilitators this morning. Because Jackie was such a beloved part of the CMP family and because we miss her so dearly, Ella, Julia and I decided we wanted to share this brief tribute to her with the entire CMP community. In the smallest of ways it’s helping to fill the hole in our hearts.
---
I hope that this email finds you well in mind and body. In this moment, and in many moments over the past few days, I find myself feeling heavy in my body. I’m recognizing this set of sensations as sadness, and it’s with this heavy heart that I share the news that Jackie Carrizo passed away last Wednesday after a battle with cancer.
We first met Jackie when she was a participant in the emme program - a program that was designed to help women and girls in Bridgeport lead the life they choose. Jackie and her family had moved to Bridgeport from Chile just before the pandemic. She was the mother of two children (now late teens/early 20’s), a wife, and had been a midwife in Chile. She attended mindfulness sessions every week with CMP and Carol, Lisa and I fell in love with her calm, kind, positive spirit.
Jackie went on to become a facilitator for CMP, sharing her gentle care and wisdom with other women, especially those newly arrived in the US. She helped translate and record meditations for CMP in Spanish. Over that time, she also became a doula and talked of the joy it brought her to share mindfulness with expectant moms, many of whom were young and scared. She taught them how to use mindfulness to ease their anxiety, and then she used it with them in the delivery room.
One of my favorite memories of Jackie comes from a day in 2022 when she stood up in front of 400 people and told her story at a Fairfield County Community Foundation event. She said:
"My family and I first arrived in America in 2019. It’s been a very difficult time for my family to adjust to life in America due to the impact of the pandemic.
I became part of Emme because I was in a deep search for belonging, for participation, for knowing, for being able to interact with other women, and also, to improve my English.
I have been going through very stressful moments, and CMP came into my life like a blessing. They have helped me be mindful of my emotions through these troublesome times by helping me find my center, focus and reduce my anxiety by accepting and understanding my emotions rather than to fight them– to be here and now and to stop running on autopilot.
Participating in CMP has really been a glorious experience that taught me how to enjoy the simple things in life such as sounds and nature, as well as how to strengthen the values in which I deeply believe, such as compassion, appreciation, empathy, self-love and gratitude.
I even had the opportunity to participate in CMP by helping to record some meditations in Spanish so that all people who don’t speak English could have the opportunity to join this community, without the impediment of language as barrier to enjoy this wonderful tool that is Meditation– a gift, that for me, has now become a life necessity.”
Julia, Ella and I attended a celebration of life for Jackie last night. Everyone was asked to honor Jackie’s wish and wear bright colors and bring a flower. Sitting in the church with Jackie’s family, friends, colleagues and clients, Father Skip told of how he visited Jackie just before her death. He said she was not afraid. Instead she was full of gratitude. When he asked her what she saw when she closed her eyes and thought of heaven, she said she could feel God’s hand in her hand, and she could see and smell flowers.
I love to think of how many young babies came into the world in a more peaceful, healthy way thanks to Jackie's work as a midwife in Chile and a doula here in CT.
And I love that we can still hear her voice offering meditations.
I leave you with the ‘Recuerda Me’ message below that she left for us all that her son and daughter handed out last night, photos of her, and this recording of her gratitude meditation.
With love and sadness,
Erika Long
Co-Founder
communitymindfulnessproject.org
Recuerda Me
No lloren por mi,
Yo me fui con paz.
Con el alma llena,
Sabiendo que amé con todo lo que fui
Y que fui amada igual de fuerte.
La enfermedad tocó mi cuerpo,
Pero jamás tocó mi espíritu.
No me robó la esencia,
No apagó mi amor,
Ahora soy la voz que te acompaña en el silencio.
Yo los llevé en el alma,
Cada uno con su rincón especial.
Fui fuerte porque ustedes lo valían,
Fui amor porque nací para amar.
Y aunque el cuerpo se cansó de luchar,
Mi corazón sigue latiendo en ustedes,
Mi amor ni muere, solo cambia de forma.
Sigan viviendo, sigan amando.
Rían con ganas, abrácense sin miedo.
No guarden el dolor en silencio.
Háblenme con el alma…
Yo los sabré escuchar.
Desde el cielo, con más paciencia que nunca.
Y si algún día sienten que no pueden más,
Recuerden esto:
Yo no me fui del todo.
Sigo con ustedes,
En todo lo que es amor.
Remember Me
Do not cry for me,
I left with peace.
with a full soul,
knowing that I loved with all that I was
And that I was loved just as strong.
The disease touched my body,
but it never touched my spirit,
did not steal my essence,
did not drown my love,
Now I am the voice that accompanies you in the silence.
I carried you in my soul,
each with your special corner.
I was strong because you were worth it,
was love because I was born to love.
And even though the body got tired of fighting,
my heart keeps beating in you,
my love does not die, only changes shape.
Keep living, keep loving.
laugh eagerly, embrace each other without fear.
Do not keep the pain silent.
Talk to Me with the soul…
I will know how to listen to you.
from heaven, with more patience than ever.
And if someday you feel like you can't anymore,
remember this:
I didn't leave at all.
I remain with you,
in all that is love.
At the FCCF lunch where Jackie told her story
