The life and death of Alexandra Huci

Three weeks after Alexandra Huci's was pronounced dead, her family, her teachers, and her teammates from Deva are still recovering from the shock caused by her sudden death which cut short her gymnastics career ?a career that many thought would have been exceptional. Alexandra Huci was born in a poor family and started gymnastics when she was 4. She already left home to train by the age of 6. By 12, she was the rising star of her generation. Coaches at Deva talked about her as a future star. Her sudden death left many unanswered questions -"could she have been the next Nadia?", "Did we do something wrong?", "Could her death have been prevented?"-, but only one answer: she was a hard working kid, who deserved [a] much better [fate].

Dust from the road was kicked up by all the people walking and stuck to your mouth. Cars with their headlights on were pouring down the road and more than 1000 people were crowding in like they do at state fairs. That's all Alexandra Huci's mother remembers from her daughter's funeral. 15 days later, the hill in front of the church in Ion Creangă looks like a flower cemetery. Tens of wreaths are lying around, dried up by the heat. They're lying directly on the clay-colored ground that surrounds the village.

"Sometimes I think all of Alexandra's life was a dream," remembers her mother. "I always thought she was slow to grow. Poverty or maybe all the hardships we went through are to blame." As she walks back to her modest home, made up of two 2-room houses, surrounded by a leaning fence, Alexandra's mother explains that "That's who we are and I'm not ashamed of it." Inside the kitchen, several stools still remain from the funeral repast. Next to them, a wooden table shows off scattered pictures, diplomas and medals won by Alexandra. They are the only tangible memories the Huci family still has left. An old picture shows a blonde, blue eyed girl, grinning from ear to ear.

Alexandra was born at 7 am one day in March, 1989. She let out a big scream as soon as she was born. "She cried a lot, but not because she was sick. She never had to take a pill," remembers her mother. When she 7 months old, her parents took her to the day care in Roman. "My husband is a lathe operator and I work in a textile factory. We couldn't take care of her. Only when she grew a little did I start taking her everywhere with me after work. She was especially fond of trips to the countryside, which is where we moved now. Sometimes, it would start raining while we were out in the fields, making haystacks, or picking potatoes. But she was really happy no mater what," recalls her mother.

Alexandra was truly happy whenever she managed to learn a new gymnastics skill by imitating her sister Ana Maria, who was taking classes at the Children's Palace [Romanian version of the YMCA] in Roman. "Ana was 6 and Alexandra was about 4. I had to put away our crystals, take everything off the dining room table, clear everything. She would get seriously hurt. I could see she was in pain, but she didn't let out one sound." A few months after her 4th birthday, Alexandra followed in her sister's footsteps and started taking gymnastics classes in Roman. "She was a tiny blonde kid, who looked me straight in the eye and told me she wants to be a great champions. You could see the determination in her eyes; as for her talent, I never had a gymnast of her caliber in my entire life. I don't think I'll have another chance [to coach a champion]," confessed Lucia Mustată, her first coach in Roman.

Whenever she visited her older sister Ana Maria at the Deva school, Alexandra had to be dragged out side by her parents. "he was yelling that she wants to stay there and she won't leave until I talk to the director of the school and have him show her which bed will be hers," says Alexandra's mother. Just like her sister, Alexandra went to Deva when she was 6 years old. When she saw her leaving, her mother had to deal with the fact both her daughters were finding their way in life somewhere far away from home. The Moldova native confessed she couldn't even find Deva on the map. "They only had a 10-day break every year. Besides that, I knew that they trained 6 hours every day and they were doing well. At the end of first grade, Alex was named most talented gymnast in her age category."

At age 8, the youngster joined CSS Deva's competitive team. "In the beginning, she was so awkward in her movements, I couldn't even look at her. But you could work on her like you would on a ceramic vase. In the end, she was more stylish than Khorkina" remembers club choreographer Valer Puia. Coach Lili Cozma has similar memories. "No matter how hard a skill was, she'd do it with a smile. By the end of the day. She was bound to get it." Gheorghe Horvat, head of the gymnastics department at the Deva school adds "she got on my nerves. I got to my wits' end and had to leave the gym screaming she is driving me nuts with her talent and ambition." She swept first place at almost every competition she was entered and by age 11, she was national champion for her age category. All the coaches at Deva agreed she was every technician's dream, the talent they wait -sometimes for an entire lifetime- to discover.

The display case holding Alexandra's medals is on display on the front porch of the family's house. With her heads coarse from work, Maria Huci straightens out the ribbons nervously. "The day before the accident, I almost had a premonition. My stomach hurt the entire night. Next day at noon, the police station received a phone call from Deva informing them of them of the accident," recalls Mrs. Huci. She doesn't remember how she gathered all the money in the house, threw on her clothes and set out to see her daughter. Only when they were crossing the mountains on their way to Deva, her husband realized she had on two different shoes. That's how she paced the hospital halls the long nights she spent in Timisoara, while she was next to her daughter. "When the doctor told us with tears in his eyes that Alexandra is gone we knew we had lost her a long time ago," whispers her mother. She looks away and nothing that's going on around her, not even the screams fro outside the house get her attention. The village is facing yet another disaster. A man drowned in the Siret river and all the neighbors are talking about him. "They found him in the water, filled up like a frog!" said Mrs. Huci. She has to deal with the fact Alexandra is also gone and part of the past now.

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