Colorado Springs – Angelica Tafoya doesn’t have to be careful anymore.
Each day of her 12 1/2 years, she had to worry about feeling the wind on her face, elastic around her waist or a pillow on her cheek.
“She’s gone now,” said Yvonne Tafoya, her aunt, who lives in Colorado Springs.
Angelica’s fight against a cruel skin disease, epidermolysis bullosa, ended at 1 a.m. Tuesday at Memorial Hospital. She died with her mother, Angie Tafoya, at her side.
She was born April 25, 1993, with the disease, which is caused by a defective gene. Angelica lacked the “glue” that holds together the dermis and the epidermis. Without fibrils to anchor the two layers of skin, any friction, no matter how slight, caused her skin to blister and fall off, leaving sores that exposed her to infection.
“We’ve got to remember that she’s not suffering anymore,” Yvonne Tafoya said. “And all the grief that we have now is for ourselves, and we’re going to miss her. It’s going to be hard, but at least she’s not hurting anymore.”
After Angelica was featured in an August 2002 special report in The Denver Post, her disease progressed. Angelica’s sores formed scar tissue and left her unable to walk. She got around in a motorized wheelchair.
After dressing as Cinderella for Halloween last year, Angelica spent more than six months in the hospital. In August, her hair fell out, a signal to her mother and aunt that the disease they had fought was beginning to win.
The disease had ravaged all of Angelica’s skin except her face.
“Her face was still clear and beautiful,” Yvonne said. “She just didn’t want to get out of bed anymore. … We tried to coax her and coax her out of bed, because I knew that this end result was going to be pneumonia or a blood clot if you lie in the same position too long. Pneumonia took her.
“The courage and the willpower that she had to keep going, even in the end, was phenomenal. She had a lot of family and had a lot of people pushing and lifting her. She couldn’t stop. … We wouldn’t let her.”
Viewing will be from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Shrine of Remembrance in Colorado Springs; a rosary will be said at 7:30 p.m. at the funeral home. A funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Joseph’s Church in Colorado Springs.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Angelica Tafoya Memorial Fund at any Ent Federal Credit Union location in Colorado Springs.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
