ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. — At just 22-years-old, Maria Celeste Burke was so many things to so many people.
More than a daughter, a sister, an aunt and a girlfriend, she was a warm smile and a shoulder to cry on. She was a source of unending positivity to those who knew her.
“She was just so friendly. I think she made friends everywhere she went,” her sister-in-law Karina Contreras said. “And I know that everyone that met her, I know their lives were changed when they met her.”
Living with muscular dystrophy, Maria never let her wheelchair or ventilator hold her back. She was a talented artist who loved to play videos games, do makeup and nail and had dreams of sharing her talents with the world.
“Even though she had muscular dystrophy, even though she was in a wheelchair, she was just always looking forward to what she was going to do next -- what we were going to do,” her boyfriend Steven Banegas said. “She wanted to do a lot of things. That’s sad because, I be thinking about all the things that could have been.”
Maria’s life was cut tragically short. An EF-3 tornado threw her family’s home into the street and sent her to the hospital. One week later, a blood clot took her life.
“I just think her kindness, her smile, were very contagious,” Contreras said. “I think if she could’ve touched everybody’s lives, this world would be very different. I know she’s changed a lot of people.”
She still lives on through the people she loved. An inspiration to love unconditionally and not let anything hold them back.
“Whatever you want to do, just go do it,” Contreras said. “Do whatever you’ve got to do. Smile. Smile for people. Be kind of people. That’s what you need to do. Don’t wait on somebody to come pick you up. Don’t let anything hold you back. That’s what we need to do more of.”
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.