Lucian is so loved.
The words shining boldly from a posterboard of photos of 4-year-old Lucian Munguia were felt in the hearts of those gathered at Yakima Bethel Church of the Nazarene for a vigil Saturday evening.
The photos, displayed in the church's pulpit alongside lit candles, sea creatures and toys, show a boy smiling and laughing in the arms of friends and family.
The vigil, which drew more than 100 community members, is the first public event honoring Lucian, who was found drowned in the Yakima River on Dec. 29 after a monthslong search involving first responders, family, friends and community volunteers.
Pastor Jim Beattie said the gathering was not a memorial service for the boy who has touched the hearts of many through the community and country, but a showing of support for parents Juan and Sandra Munguia and their family.
It was also an opportunity to thank those who helped through the search, whether by volunteering time to comb through brush along the river, hanging posters or offering words or prayers of support, he said.
"We don't have to continue to pray that Lucian will be found. He has been found," Beattie said to the crowd. "And while the outcome, the answers, aren't exactly what his family prayed for and hoped for, there can be and there is peace in this moment."
At the close of the vigil, Beattie said Lucian's family has, through their tears, shown incredible strength and peace.
"They will tell you that comes from two places," he said. "No. 1, the peace of God that goes beyond all our understanding and makes no sense but is very prominent and very dominant. And No. 2, the strength they receive from being encouraged and loved and hugged and words and texts sent to them from all of you, hundreds, thousands of you, who have said, 'I don't know you, but my heart is broken for you.'"
He invited Juan and Sandra to stand and light candles and share the flame with those gathered until each person held a glowing candle.
As lit candles through the hall were extinguished, community members lined up to offer hugs and words of support to the family.
The family plans a celebration of life at noon Saturday, Jan. 14, at Stone Church, 3303 Englewood Ave. in Yakima. The service will be open to the public.
Family vigil
A string of seashell and star lights and flameless candles cast a soft glow over photos of Lucian and his set of Lego sea creatures outside his family's Yakima home.
In the months Lucian's whereabouts were unknown, his family would meet at Sarg Hubbard Park, where Lucian was last seen Sept. 10, for a nightly vigil. As nights grew longer through fall and winter and the gates at the park closed earlier, the family moved this gathering to their front porch.
The memorial was set on a pillar where Lucian would sit to watch the sunset or the moon and stars before bedtime, said his mother, Sandra Munguia, and for several weeks the family came together there to say goodnight.
"He would just sit there, watching the sky and pointing out the stars. It was really sweet," she said in an interview in December.
Grief through the holidays
Before Christmas, and before Lucian was found, Sandra shared her family's experience with grief at the holidays in an interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic.
She said it was difficult, but family and community provided a lot of support as the family experienced their first Christmas without Lucian and the second without Sandra's father, who died in 2021.
"Sometimes when you're in grief, people say as time goes on it gets a little bit easier to deal with. But I think it's been harder to deal with," she said. "I feel like I'm missing out on him growing up."
As months passed, so had the milestones Lucian would have reached, Munguia said. Her son would be potty trained, something he was working on before he went missing, she said.
Lucian was also becoming more interested in coloring and crafts, activities the family does together for the holidays, Munguia said. The star balanced at the top of the family's Christmas tree was painted by Lucian.
"This year, we would have been able to do more Christmas crafts, and he would have got it," she said. "It's hard because I don't get to see him do these things."
He also would have completed a program for autistic children that he started this fall.
Lucian attended the program offered by Catholic Charities, which helps autistic children learn to communicate and develop social and learning skills, for about two weeks before he went missing.
As the family prepares a memorial service for Lucian, they recommend the Catholic Charities program as one for community members to support with donations in lieu of flowers.
Keep going
The tree in the Munguias' living room went up in time for Christmas, but only just. It was wrapped in lights with handmade ornaments hanging from the higher branches.
Lucian liked to take off the Christmas ornaments within his reach, his mom remembered.
"I know he's not here, so I could decorate it, but at the same time it doesn't feel right. I've kept it like it would be if he was here," she said.
Sandra said 6-year-old Adonis and 2-year-old Kasima are the reason the family decided to decorate at all.
"It took us a long time to get into it," she said. "If my husband and I didn't have them, I don't think we'd have the tree up. But we have to keep going, for them."
With the help of a local business, the family bought gifts for their kids for Christmas, something that at first seemed out of reach because Sandra and her husband, Juan, had only recently returned to work, she said. The family's GoFundMe was only being used to pay for costs related to the search for Lucian, including flyers, gas and a private investigator.
The family was adopted by Broadway Truck Stops, a company that operates travel stops along Interstate 90, Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 395. The group supplied gift cards to buy Christmas gifts and also helped get posters of Lucian to truck stops throughout the region, Sandra said.
The gifts brought some excitement and joy for Adonis and Kasima on Christmas.
"I still instill in them every year that Christmas is not just for gifts. It's for family and spending time together and being grateful," Sandra said.
She said it's difficult to pull herself out of the grief and dark moments, but family helps.
And her children always show up at the right moments to make her laugh or put a smile on her face, she said.
"It just brings me back down to 'this is what I still have, and I'm blessed for it,'" she said. "I have to keep holding on for them."
