GILROY
– Scattered on the lawn of the Rodriguez family home is an
eccentric collection of possessions, waiting for Saturday’s garage
sale. The sale is Linda Rodriguez’s way of helping her good friend,
45-year-old Marivic Perfecto.
Garage sale this weekend will raise money for Marivic Perfecto’s family
By Megan Bakker
Special to The Dispatch
GILROY – Scattered on the lawn of the Rodriguez family home is an eccentric collection of possessions, waiting for Saturday’s garage sale. The sale is Linda Rodriguez’s way of helping her good friend, 45-year-old Marivic Perfecto.
Inside the Gilroy home at 8421 Hanna St., it grows apparent that the lawn merely holds the spillover; the entryway is crammed with worn boxes and the pool table is in danger of collapsing under the weight. Everything was donated by concerned friends and family, or even complete strangers.
”She is just well-loved,” said Rodriguez about Perfecto, who slipped into a coma on March 12, 2004. Her condition is still considered critical, and doctors are having difficulties controlling her fever.
One-hundred percent of the funds from the garage sale go to help Perfecto’s husband and family make payments, including house payments and Catholic school tuition for her three children; two girls, ages 19 and 16, and a 13-year-old boy.
”People have been donating stuff … for her,” said Rodriguez’s husband, Rudy, who bustles around, trying to create space for the most recent van-load. A cardboard cutout of Elvira rests next to a rack of bright suits, and the family’s most recent addition – a tiny, white male kitten named Maverick, in honor of Marivic – wrestles with a pink feather boa. Expensive, never-opened exercise equipment, and some nearly-new children’s toys are mixed in with the odds and ends.
In addition to items for the garage sale, co-workers have donated more than 1,000 hours of vacation time, trading it in for cash bonuses which are then given to an account that helps pay Perfecto’s medical expenses.
Rodriguez met Perfecto five years ago at Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where Perfecto lived and worked as an executive secretary. Along with her regular duties, Perfecto also took time to organize birthdays and monthly potlucks. The two women, along with another employee at Valley Medical Center, quickly became fast friends.
”We’re like the three Musketeers,” said Rodriguez. She said the three of them would go out to monthly lunch or dinner dates. The Friday before Perfecto was diagnosed, they had dined at the Spaghetti Factory in San Jose, spending hours talking and laughing.
”I’m sure they wanted to kick us out,” said Rodriguez.
She said her friend appeared fine, despite some gallstone trouble. However, over the next couple of days, Perfecto grew increasingly ill. She was eventually diagnosed with Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, which involves a swelling of brain and spinal chord, often resulting in a coma.
The chances of a full recovery are slim, and many patients suffer permanent nervous system damage, including mental retardation.
Before her illness, Perfecto also held a second job, working weekends from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at La Casa del Fuente Convalescent Home in Morgan Hill. Her supervisor, Gilroy resident Vicki Pacheco, said that Perfecto is very funny and intelligent, and would often make Filipino food for the staff.
”She’s the most dependable person I have ever met,” said Pacheco, who visits Perfecto at the Valley Medical Center every other week. ”She’s never missed a day of work.” The entire staff at La Casa del Fuente wears guardian angel pins every day to work, to honor Pacheco and pray for her.
Rodriguez has been trying to encourage everyone who knew Perfecto to visit her in the hospital, adding that when she visits her, Perfecto’s eyes follow the sound of her voice.
”She gets a tear, she always will get a tear,” Rodriguez said.
The garage sale this Saturday will be at the Rodriguez household, and will run from 8 a.m. until everything gets sold. There will be food for sale and a bounce house for children.
Anyone wishing to make donations for Saturday’s sale, or for a second sale tentatively planned for later in June, can call Linda Rodriguez at 848-6573.
A Washington Mutual account is set up for anyone unable to attend Saturday. Checks can be made payable to WM FBO Maria Victoria Perfecto, account number 095-4348095, and can be deposited at any Washington Mutual branch.
