CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – The UVA community came together on Wednesday night to celebrate the life of the UVA student who passed away after contracting meningitis.
Nico Ramos-Esteban died on March 7 after battling the infection in the hospital for about a week.
Hundreds of friends, family members, faculty, and students piled into UVA’s McIntire Ampitheater on Wednesday night, all to remember Nico. Those who knew him best say the first-year was known for his kindness, his sense of humor, his faith, and a smile they could recognize anywhere.
“He was literally the best person we knew,” said Valentina Aguilera, a longtime friend of Nico’s from home in Panama and a student at UVA. “He was literally the definition of friendship.”
Aguilera and Paula Morgan met Nico when he and his family lived in Panama and say they became instant friends.
“He had this ability to like, bring groups together,” Morgan said. “Not only was he my friend, he was also someone I really admired.”
Both say they were not surprised to see the massive turnout at his memorial.
“He’s not here with us, he still managed to get so many people together,” Morgan said.
Aguilera recounted a conversation she had with Nico’s father before the memorial.
“He was like, I hope it fills,” she said. “I was like, don’t worry about that, that’s the least of the worries. You have to tell people to stop coming, this place is gonna fill up completely.”
One by one, Nico’s friends and family members took the stage to share their memories of his life. As the final speaker, Nico’s father urged the crowd to remember four letters: N, I, C, and O. Soon, the entire amphitheater was chanting Nico’s name.
“He was always excited to be around people,” said Matt Emerson, Nico’s Bible Study Leader and a member of UVA Campus Outreach. “Always had a huge smile on his face, and I think everybody talked about that.”
Emerson says Nico was hardworking, as a friend, a son, a brother to his fellow members of Phi Kappa Psi, and as a person of faith.
“He really cared about following after Jesus, about honoring Jesus in the way that he lived his life,” Emerson said.
As the community continues to grieve, those who knew Nico are finding comfort in keeping his legacy alive.
“I think we’ll never get closure, cause it’s a wound that’s never gonna close, but with time, you learn how to live with it,” Aguilera said.
If you would like to help support his family, you can do so here.
“Remembering him and just talking about the amazing stories we have with him or about him, feel like that also helped me and made me just grateful that I got to meet him,” Morgan said.
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