Catalina Garcia is described as having the ability to lift the spirits of all those around her.

She was studying elementary education as a sophomore last spring and was active with the Latino Resource Center and was about to begin a new job as an undergraduate work-study employee for NIU’s Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, according to her biography in last year’s Northern Now Memorial Issue.

Raised in Cicero, Cathy, as she was known, had one older sister and two older brothers.

“My sister was our princess, our princess in pink,” Jaime Garcia, Catalina’s older brother, said in the biography. “She loved pink. She loved everything in life. Let’s remember her this way today, tomorrow and forever.”

The Garcia family set up a memorial page on the Making Everlasting Memories Web site, available at www.mem.com/story.aspx?id=2294746.

In her biography on the site, Cathy is described as “bringing out the best in any situation [by] offering a smile, a witty remark or the twinkle of an eye. And with just those simple gestures, she could evoke the most pleasant of emotions. Cathy really mastered the art of living and had great fun in doing so.”

She is further described as being a people person who successfully dealt effectively with others, had contagious enthusiasm and as an expressive, optimistic, and uninhibited individual who was a performer in the theater of life.

Her hobbies listed on the site include watching and playing recreational volleyball, collecting stuffed animals and being an arts-and-crafts type of person.

“She loved to share her energy, wit and her zest for all of her activities with her friends and family,” according to the site. “Catalina Garcia lived life to its fullest and made everyone around her happier just for knowing her. She will be remembered with a smile.”