[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4670]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING RAFAEL GARCIA

 Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I would like to speak to you about 
the loss of a remarkable young man who made a tremendous impact on my 
community.
  This week, the city of Miami lost a firefighter, a devoted husband, 
an expectant father, and a selfless public servant named Rafael Garcia 
when he died very suddenly from a brain tumor that was detected just 
days ago.
  Rafael, known as Ralf, was only 28 years old. He is remembered by the 
many who loved him as brilliant, driven, and selfless, and the all-too-
brief record of his life confirms all three traits. He graduated 
salutatorian from Christopher Columbus High School in 2005. He chose to 
attend Florida International University to stay close to his family and 
the community he loved and went on to graduate summa cum laude as the 
only student in his class to have a perfect GPA.
  With Ralf's natural gifts, he could have chosen virtually any career 
path--including jobs that would have paid lucrative salaries and kept 
him far from danger--but instead he chose to apply his considerable 
talents to serving his neighbors as a firefighter and EMT. So after 
graduation, he worked as a math teacher while attending Coral Springs 
Fire Academy, from which he graduated first in his class. He was then 
so eager to get started that he camped outside for 3 days so he could 
be first to submit his application for an opening. After winning that 
position, he attended Miami Fire Academy, where he once again graduated 
first in his class and won the award of Outstanding Recruit.
  As a firefighter, Ralf was more than just a hero who rushed into 
infernos while others fled; he also served our community in smaller 
moments, protecting the little pieces of this country that make America 
home. It is firefighters like Ralf who place a rescued teddy bear in 
the arms of a scared child. It is firefighters like Ralf who extinguish 
a blaze before it destroys the business a man worked his whole life to 
build. It is firefighters like Ralf who save a young mother from the 
twisted steel of a car wreck. And it is firefighters like Ralf who help 
to provide my children--and all children--with the knowledge that they 
are safe and that should anything happen, there are men and women ready 
to blare sirens, stop traffic, and break down walls to get to them if 
that is what they have to do.
  Ralf is remembered as a ``firefighter's firefighter.'' Many children 
grow up dreaming of becoming firefighters, and many who achieve this 
dream aspire to be a firefighter like Ralf.
  His supervisor, Lieutenant Christopher Cope, told the Miami Herald he 
was ``one of those subordinates that you wish you could clone to staff 
your entire department.''
  When his tumor was discovered earlier this month, Ralf was in the 
process of studying for his lieutenant's exam. Remarkably, with all of 
his responsibilities as a firefighter and soon-to-be father, Ralf also 
found time to touch lives in other ways.
  He spent any time he could spare tutoring high schoolers in Miami 
struggling with math and serving as a substitute teacher. His father 
tells of multiple parents who have reached out this week to express 
their gratitude for how Ralf helped their children achieve better test 
scores.
  But even with all of his service in life, perhaps the greatest 
demonstration we have of Rafael Garcia's character is the dignity, 
love, and selflessness he demonstrated in his final days. A surprise 
prognosis that would have left many of us bitter and defeated instead 
brought out what was best in him.
  Before he passed, his wife Maeghan wrote on Facebook of his final 
days when he resolved to donate his organs to others. She wrote, ``I 
truly believe that the only reason he is still holding on is because he 
knows he will continue to help others even after his passing. In true 
Ralf fashion, I can just imagine him not wanting to `be selfish' by 
letting go too soon. That was his nature,'' she wrote, ``always 
thinking of others first.''
  Miami has lost an irreplaceable member of our community this week in 
Rafael Garcia, but I know his legacy will live on for many years in the 
lives of those he touched. Today, Jeanette and I hold in our prayers 
his wife Maeghan, his-soon-to-be-born son, who is due in May, and his 
parents, Juan and Patricia.

                          ____________________