Tucked away in a Paraguayan village about 135 miles from the capital, dirt roads line the farmlands where cattle roam and pigs feed. Beneath the straw roof of one of the wooden houses, a dog lies next to a hamper, eagerly awaiting her owner’s return.
Yet the bedroom’s occupant is missing, last seen 3,900 miles away from that rural village called General Eugenio A. Garay. Leidy Luna Villalba is one of the approximately 150 unaccounted-for people believed to have been in Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., when the building collapsed, killing at least nine people.
Authorities continue to search for survivors in the piles of rubble. Their rescue efforts continue even as a fire and stormy weather have challenged the mission.
“We’re going to continue moving and moving and searching as hard as we can, for as long as we can, until we have to make that decision,” Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.
As of Sunday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said, one victim had died after being taken to a hospital, and eight had died at the scene. Four victims were newly identified Sunday, but their names have not been released to the public.
For Luna’s family, the 23-year-old is more than a statistic in a harrowing event.
“Leidy is more, much more, than one of the hundreds of people,” said Nilda Villalba, her cousin. “She’s the joy of our lives, a dreamer, a doer. She had a happiness that overtook everyone. She was someone who pushed you to achieve your dreams.”
Described by her loved ones as an exemplary and hard-working woman, Luna had traveled abroad for the first time as a nanny for the family of Silvana López Moreira, the first lady of Paraguay.
She had been working for a relative of López for more than a year, spending her earnings on nursing school. Whatever she did not use for her academic and personal needs, she gave to her family.
“She was the one who kept the family together,” Nilda Villalba said. “We’re very humble and don’t have much, but she helped us pull through.”
Luna grew up surrounded by cows, pigs, chickens and roosters at the farm where her father works, building a love for animals that transformed into dreams of pursuing a veterinary career.
But her father’s earnings could not finance her ambitions.
“That was a big blow for her,” said another cousin, Lorena Villalba. “But she was determined to have a bright future to help her family.”
In 2016, her aspirations drove her to nursing school.
At Universidad San Lorenzo, Luna was known as “the light of the class,” her friend and classmate Gloria Silvero said.
“The first day of class, she opened the door and asked if it was the right room,” Silvero recalled. “Nobody knew her, but she just kept smiling at us — the brightest smile in the world.”
Throughout her four years in nursing school, Luna was admired for her effort, work ethic and determination. From Monday to Friday, she studied intensively. On the weekends, she worked as a house cleaner and nanny to pursue her dreams.
“She worked hard, but always with a smile on her face,” Silvero said. “She was also the best nanny. She would move heaven and earth to make every kid happy.”
Luna had only to clear her thesis to receive her degree. She hoped the earnings from her work in Surfside would allow her to finance the fee, which was about $300.
“She was so worried before the big trip, but I told her that it would be a great experience and an opportunity to achieve everything she wanted,” Silvero said. “Right now, I wish I hadn’t.”
For days, the family has waited in anguish, receiving limited information from Paraguay’s government.
“We heard from the news, hoping it was a mistake because they misspelled her name,” said Juana Villalba, Luna’s mother. “Then they finally told us, but we don’t know much. We still pray.”
Her mother said authorities had helped Luna’s older brother, Diego, travel from Argentina to Paraguay. His DNA samples were taken in case they might be used to identify her body. They will be processed in Paraguay, and the results will be sent to the United States.
Apart from Luna’s unaccounted-for status, family members do not have further information.
“We just want someone to tell us where she is,” Lorena Villalba said. “The first lady was able to fly to Miami, but we’re still in the dark about how the search is going. We can’t afford to travel to Miami.”
Luna’s loved ones find solace in their memories. They recall the young woman who loved her family. The happy girl who devoted a TikTok profile to her dogs and danced to the grooving rhythms of reggaeton music. The goofy person who inundated Facebook with memes and videos of herself dancing with cows.
Most of all, they speak of Luna as the light of their eyes, the shining example of perseverance and the symbol of hope for a better life in rural Paraguay.
For now, her two dogs, Wendy and Capitán, wait by the hamper, the roosters continue to croak, and a mother clutches her daughter’s photo in one hand and a rosary in the other.
“God, please bring her back,” Juana Villalba prays between tears.
