‘To know Renezmae was to know pure joy’
Hundreds of mourners attend memorial service for little girl found in Rio Grande
It fell to Donavan Maestas to deliver the eulogy Saturday for his 5-year-old cousin, Renezmae Calzada, whose disappearance and death galvanized this community along the Rio Grande, where searchers found her body earlier this month in a tragedy that remains under investigation.
Addressing more than 200 friends, family members and others crowded into Sacred Heart of Jesus Church for a memorial service, he described the moment when he asked the child’s mother, Victoria Maestas, about her favorite memories of the little girl he called “Mae Mae.”
“I stared at her and watched as tears rolled down her face,” Donavan Maestas recalled, “and there was this silence. I realized that is the hardest thing she or any other mother would have to do. She never thought in a million years that those moments would just become memories.”
Following the public memorial service, the family, who also planned a private traditional Native American funeral, hosted a reception at the Santa Claran Casino Hotel’s event center to honor the many people who took part in an intense four-day search after the girl went missing from a family member’s front yard on Sept. 8.
Renezmae was last seen around 9:30 that morning, law enforcement officials have said, and her mother reported her missing around 6 that evening.
Authorities have not said how they think the child ended up in the Rio Grande or how she died. The FBI, which became involved in the
investigation because Renezmae went missing within Santa Clara Pueblo boundaries, has labeled the death as suspicious. But autopsy results are still pending and no arrests have been made related to her death.
Malcolm Torres, 25, who has a son with Renezmae’s mother, was jailed on an unrelated arrest warrant shortly after the girl’s disappearance and remains in custody at the Tierra Amarilla jail for failing to comply with requirements of his sentence in an Albuquerque DWI case. Police say, however, they currently have no suspects in connection with Renezmae’s death.
On Saturday, a photo of Renezmae was mounted on a stand surrounded by flowers at the front of the church. Her smile beamed from the image captured before her first day of preschool. She wore a floral sundress and a backpack. In front of the photo stood a bunch of peonies, a small stuffed unicorn tied to the flower vase with a pink bow.
“To know Renezmae was to know pure joy,” Donavan Maestas said, describing how she would wheedle candy and other goodies for herself and her little brother, Ignacio Archuleta. He described his bond with her as “something that can’t be broken,” and told stories of her devotion to her 1-year old brother.
The family was dressed in pink, her favorite color, Ignacio in a button-down that matched his mother’s dress. Donavan Maestas wore a pink tie over a black dress shirt.
Other family and friends wore black T-shirts with stenciled hands clasped in prayer over curling script reading “Remember Mae,” with an image of her with pink angel wings over a background of pink roses.
During quiet moments came the sounds of young children shuffling, asking questions, talking, crying and being shushed by siblings and parents.
Deacon Alex Valdez delivered the homily, drawing on biblical scripture from Lamentations, Corinthians and the Gospel of Mark.
He told the gathering Calzada’s death was not part of any plan of God.
“God’s will for little Mae Mae was punctured by evil,” Valdez said. “He shares in your grief and your anger and seeks justice.”
He ended his sermon with the story of Jesus asking disciples to bring little children to him.
“Renezmae is at peace in the kingdom of God, because the kingdom of God belongs to the children,” he said as the quiet of the sanctuary filled with the sounds of children whispering and the cooing of Renezmae’s brother.