Mai Nou Lee... is home and free!

I met Mai Nou Lee in 2002 zipping around the campus of Hoover High School. She was rarely spotted in or out of class without her sidekick and best friend, Andrea. These girls had my curiosity, but I certainly didn’t have theirs. I would walk towards them and they would dodge me, or even head in opposite directions on purpose. Andrea mastered the eye roll and Mai would invent any number of excuses... true or untrue to escape me. I knew right away that Mai’s personality was larger than life, and bigger than the body that she lived in. One friend said it well... Mai was small in stature and large in life... She was full of energy, mischief and fun. Mai’s voice could carry far when she wanted someone’s attention and there was not a shy bone in her body when it came to meeting people. Mai loved people and to be with people, and eventually, she realized I drove a van with a wheelchair lift that could get her where she wanted to go... she quit dodging me and started finding me!

Most of my memories with Mai include Andrea who really helped me understand how to care for Mai. The first time we ever went somewhere off the high school campus was to a Christian concert in town. We made our way up to one of the first rows so the girls could see beyond the people that were standing. I will never forget when Mai motioned with her finger for me to come close so I could hear her... “Christen, I trust you not to break my bones, you can take me out of my chair and hold me up so I can see....” I looked at Andrea, her eyes were wide with fear, but we did it. I remember choking back tears that night and knowing our friendship had gone to another level because she trusted me with her fragile body.

Mai found great delight in the freedom of being able to use her wheelchair inside my house and then to roam the neighborhood and head to the gas station or grocery store a couple blocks away for a soda and some candy or hot cheetos. Mai didn’t meet a stranger and the community of Young Life leaders, my roommates, family even friends from church all knew Mai and Mai knew them.

Mai and some of her friends began coming to our Young Life Capernaum club. A long ride in the big white van that could hold several of our friends in their power chairs was our vehicle for adventure. We also went to football games, we did sleepovers and even took them TPing. One vivid memory I have was taking Mai out of her chair and placing a roll of toilet paper on her fingers so she could roll out the TP as I ran her around the Beery’s front yard and then back into the van before they could catch us... Mai said the wheelchair lift of the van would take too long, so she preferred I get a workout and carry her.

None of us will forget when one of the varsity football players and Mai’s good friend from Young Life, Kevin Herman invited her to the senior prom. Mai wanted a white dress and essentially wanted to look like a princess and a bride rolled into one... so a friend of ours made a dress to fit her! She had dinner and pictures with friends and a prom like everyone else. They rode in a limo and danced the night away next to close friends and so much joy... and returned to my house for a girls sleepover, though I don’t think any of us slept.

Mai and a few of her friends rode the train to Hanford simply to eat ice cream. You can bet that train car was full of laughter and teasing and turned some heads. A few silly girls in their power wheelchairs with their very appropriate leader makes for some entertainment.

In 2003, Mai signed up to come to Young Life camp at Woodleaf in Northern California. Other than spending the night at a couple sleepovers we had done, this was her first time away from home. She had her eyes on the boys and every chance she could get to meet new people... with over 400n high schoolers from all over, she had lots of friends to meet. Andrea and Mai had to charge their batteries daily because they ran their wheelchairs all over the huge camp. However, that week at camp, we had a scare and Mai ended up in the hospital, the only time other than this month that she’d had a stay. We prayed and hoped and Mai, our little fighter, did some deep thinking about her life and disability. Instead of hearing the club talks at camp with friends, she got them in her hospital bed from leaders who sat with her.
She explained to us that she had always thought she was cursed because of the way her body was formed... that maybe she or her parents in a past life had done something terrible to be punished. As Mai laid in the hospital bed, we shared with her from the Bible in John 9 about a man born blind... Jesus’ disciples pointed the man out and asked “who sinned? this man or his parents?” Jesus response was dignifying and purposeful and he responded that this was not anyone’s sin, but so that God’s work could be seen in the man’s life... and Jesus healed him.

Somewhere between Mai getting better and heading home from camp, a transformation began in her heart. She encountered Jesus who spoke the same purpose and dignity to her shame and embarrassment and she embraced her life and the body she had been born with.
Mai was known to explain to people after that trip “My name is Mai, and I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta. I’m like a fragile light bulb, if you drop me, my bones will just break, but God’s light is shining in me is so that His works can be seen. Thats my purpose and someday I will be healed just like the blind man was.” Purpose in life can carry you far, along with love and care. Mai was never expected to live past early childhood, but we are here to celebrate that with incredible care from Ger, Pa, and her sisters who bathed and fed, dressed and carried Mai for 33 years and with purpose and dignity she found in Jesus, Mai lived far beyond what anyone said was possible.
Psalm 139 says “You created my inmost being and knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.... my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.. Your eyes saw my unformed body, all the days ordained for me...” Mai’s life, body, and purpose were no surprise to God and she knew it and it changed her.

For some years, Mai could be seen every week with one of her friends who had been Young Life leaders... they would drive to her house on Sundays and walk her to church. Crossing Ashlan Avenue without a crosswalk to learn more about Jesus brought laughter and memories and depth. Longtime friends like Nick and Jaime, Joel and Chad became extended family that welcomed her into their church and families. Mai touched people with joy and zeal wherever she went.

As the years went on and Mai didn’t get out much, she like many of us can, became disconnected from people who helped her grow in her relationship with God. Mai went through some hard times as she looked to the wrong places for connection and belonging and she knew it. I would typically hear from Mai at least a couple times/year when things got hard.
This month when I heard from Mai, she called with her usual spunky voice to let me know she was headed to the hospital and asked “would you like to come and visit me?” Over the last week of Mai’s life Andrea, Susan and

I stayed in touch closely and we were there a lot with Ger and Pa. Andrea even spent the night Wednesday night for their last sleepover.
On Thursday, October 10th though, something was different. In almost 2 decades of friendship, I had never heard Mai say she was tired of suffering. She didn’t talk about her life as suffering before that day to me. When I arrived in the afternoon, she was clear and communicative. Mai asked me to pray with her and told me she’d been distant from Jesus. In Mai’s own very clear words, she asked Jesus to forgive her and told Him she wanted to be with Him and to be healed in her heart and body. After that, Mai got our her bossy finger and bossy voice and if you knew her well, you know what I am talking about. She started calling over her sisters who were in the room and was clear “Stop messing around and walk with Jesus so I know I can see you again.” Mai asked me to tell you, she said “tell them all to walk with Jesus and not run from Him like I did. Tell them that heaven is real so we can be together again.” It was just a few hours later that we encouraged Mai to step into Jesus arms as we whispered to her about Heaven, the home she was made for. Together as a community, we launched Mai into the arms of her heavenly father.

Even in her dying, Mai spoke to us of how to live. Just like Mai knew she had to make a decision that day to return to Jesus and trust him and follow him, we all have the opportunity to do the same. Perhaps the most important thing I can say to honor our friend Mai Nou Lee is to tell you that heaven is real. Mai is more alive now than she has ever been and she finally is not bound by the body that never fit her anyway. Mai experienced the love, forgiveness, purpose and dignity that Jesus offers because he paid the price for our sin when he died on the cross. Our sin does not follow us into another life or into someone else’s life in the form of a curse when we trust his work on the cross and receive his forgiveness.


 So, I leave you with Mai’s words that speak profoundly to me to encourage me in my walk with Jesus... “Stop messing around and walk with Jesus so we can all be together again in heaven.”