| Graduation Year | Class of 2002 |
| Date of Passing | Feb 09, 2009 |
| About | Sunday, February 15, 2009 Cynthia Colello, 24, succumbs to meningitis Celebration of Life will be held Saturday in Aliso Viejo. LAGUNA NIGUEL – Cynthia Colello, 24, said once that the world isn't in control here, but there's a lot of good in it. She saw the best in those who took care of her, in her family and her friends and neighbors. Her long battle with illness is over. She died at 3 a.m. Tuesday. Cynthia was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and treated with stem cell transplants in April 2007 and March 2008, and a year later started school again at Point Loma Nazarene University where she had already finished a semester. Within three days she was ill again, and was sent to the City of Hope in Duarte. There, she waited for a bone marrow transplant that could possibly save her. She received the bone marrow in late April. Maybe the transplant would have saved her life, but in a tragic turn of fate Cynthia contracted spinal meningitis. Her mom, Michele, says that her immune system was so compromised it couldn't fight off the infection. Cynthia was reading a chapter in Judges while she was waiting for the transplant, about Gideon who fought a war against 250,000 men. He won, and the enemy fled. She saw how God could conquer insurmountable odds and so could she. "Two days later they found the good match," she'd said. "We'd been told so much bad news. I feel like I'm meeting angels here." At Point Loma Nazarene University, 400 people stood in line for an hour to se if they could be donors for her. Cynthia said situations like that made people see their own altruism. Jim Colello, Cynthia's father, says now that he believes this is when the body of the Christian Church is at its most Christlike. "There's no conditions, no discrimination, no pettiness, no old hurts, no nonsense, just a good old-fashioned love in biblical proportions, heaven on earth," he says. The Celebration of Life is at 10 a.m. Saturday at Compass Bible Church, 150 Columbia in Aliso Viejo. Interment will be at 2:30 p.m. at Pacific View Cemetery, 3500 Pacific View Drive in Corona del Mar. Friends are welcome to attend both services. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to the Cynthia Memorial Fund online through www.paypal.com to the cynthiamemorialfund@cox.net. Checks may be made out to Compass Bible Church, 150 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, 92656 care of the Cynthia Memorial Fund. Contact the writer: levezich@ocregister.com or 949-454-7323 |
