When you look at photos of Rafael Garcia, Sr., you can just tell he was a happy man with a great sense of humor.
“If you’d have met him, you’d have loved him,” said Carmen Garcia, his widow.
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When Garcia speaks of Rafael, you can feel the love radiating off her.
“We got together when we were 17. We were high school sweethearts,” said Garcia. “And it was wonderful. We were happy, we were goofballs. It was fun. He was a great guy. You’d have been hanging out with him. He’d have been telling you jokes, anything, just to make you feel good.”
Rafael told Garcia he had enlisted in the Marine Corps during their senior year, leaving just after graduation. Garcia gave birth to their son, and Rafael continued his training. They got married before he left for Camp Lejeune, and Garcia and their son Rafael Jr. followed.
“That was May of ‘86 that we went there. It was beautiful. It was wonderful. He was happy now that his wife and his son were there, he was proud of our son. You know, every Marine wanted a little boy like that,” said Garcia. “My husband would take him on base at Camp Lejeune to show him off to the other guys and the guys in the barracks would take the mattresses down and they would have wrestling matches to make my son laugh. He was about a year and a half to two and a half there.”
Soon, their daughter Jasmine was born off base nearby in Jacksonville, N.C., and their beautiful time at Camp Lejeune continued.
“Everyone was just so supportive and wonderful to us. And I loved it. It was wonderful being Puerto Rican because there was no racial tension. It was all one big happy family, one big unit,” said Garcia. “It was a wonderful time of our life. That’s how I seen it. It was like the spring of our romance. A beautiful time, he was my soulmate.”
Fast forward more than 30 years as a happy family-- Rafael was diagnosed with lung cancer. After a negative experience at the Buffalo VA where Garcia said they didn’t do anything to help Rafael, he went to a private hospital closer to their home. That’s when they discovered his cancer was now at stage four, and it had spread to his chest cavity. That hospital told the Buffalo VA they were going to have to pay for all his treatments.
But in April of 2020, they found the cancer had metastasized in Rafael’s brain.
“And during COVID, I had to drop him off at the hospital where I couldn’t even go in there with him,” said Garcia. “And he called me up scared, screaming, didn’t know what was going on. The neurologist told me he had an egg-sized tumor in his brain. And he would only last maybe one to nine months tops.”
Thankfully, Rafael made it through surgery to remove the tumor.
“He came through, he was a strong Marine. He came through, and the neurologist couldn’t believe how strong he was,” said Garcia. “I said, ‘I know, he’s my hero. It’s my man. My marine.’”
Garcia said January 12, 2021, was the worst day of her life.
“When they stopped all treatment and said there’s nothing else we can do for you. He lasted until February 3. He even sang me a Sam Cooke song before he left us,” said Garcia. “He would have been 55.”
Without Rafael, Garcia said she was lost. The VA covered his chemo treatment, they covered the funeral. But she hasn’t seen a dime otherwise.
“I lost everything. I lost the house, went into foreclosure. I was left broke and homeless,” said Garcia. “We didn’t have life insurance because he couldn’t work anymore, couldn’t make the payments.”
But that’s not the worst part of what Garcia is left with.
“I have to worry now about my son. I hope he makes it to see his grandkids graduate,” said Garcia.
Because Rafael spent about two years on base, and Rafael Jr. often went with him, Garcia is worried her children, but especially her son, will also develop health issues.
“They both have some health issues, just little things that any mother’s going to worry about,” said Garcia. “But when you get the official document letter from the President saying that we know you were stationed there with your family, you worry. You just hope and pray that your kids are going to outlive you. I hope to God they do.”
In the meantime, Garcia has found some comfort with the Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Widows group, and she urges anyone else with a similar story to connect with them to not only get help filing for benefits and lawsuit, but also for support.
“It’s good to be in a group that understands, that isn’t going to fix me up with some man or anything or tell me, ‘You need to move on.’ You know, they understand, and they have been a lot of support. And helpful. Very helpful,” said Garcia. “And you just got to keep fighting. There’s going to be a lot of obstacles, a lot of things they’re going to throw out, just keep your head on and fight the fight. That’s what they would want us to do. Don’t be afraid, sometimes it can be scary going against the higher ups, but if you need a voice, we’re here. And we’re not afraid to fight. Any Puerto Rican woman is not afraid to fight.”
And fight she will—for what she and other Camp Lejeune widows deserve—and to keep her husband’s memory alive.
“I cannot celebrate Memorial Day. I could not celebrate the Fourth of July. I am angry. They took away my best friend. Soulmate. I’m going to do whatever I can for him as he deserves a lot better than he got.”