So much held in a heart. Victoria Antuñez thinks about her sister this way.
Athena Raylene Zepeda of Whittier loved dancing, techno music, hanging out with friends, and trips to the lake or the beach.
An aspiring model and an MMA fighter, Athena was 20 when she took what she thought was a Percocet pill at a house party in Riverside. What she actually ingested was a fentapill, fake prescription pills containing the opioid fentanyl that is up to 100 times stronger than morphine.
Athena died at Riverside Community Hospital two days later, on Nov. 7, 2020.
Her floragraph, a floral portrait her family helped create, will be one of several displayed on the OneLegacy float at the 136th Rose Parade. OneLegacy, the Azusa-based organ, eye, and tissue recovery organization, chose to honor Athena on its float, “Let Your Life Soar.”
Her sister said the gift of even so short a life means six other people got another chance at it. Athena’s eyes went to a Chilean woman, her skin to several burn victims, and her kidneys, liver and lungs were donated as well. Athena’s heart, that organ her sister said fought against so much hardship, went to a 13-year-old boy in Las Vegas, Nev.
That boy suffers from a type of muscular dystrophy, a disorder shared by one of Athena’s sisters.
The match felt heaven-blessed, Athena’s family said, as they eventually met her heart recipient and heard her heart beat in his chest.
“His mom told us after he got her heart, and he would be bullied in school, he started getting this fighting spirit about him, just like Athena,” Antuñez said.
Her sister’s fighting spirit was bred through hardship, first in a difficult, abusive relationship Athena had with her father, who was in jail when she died. People she reported the abuse to did not believe her, Antuñez said.
“It wasn’t until she was 18 that she started to become who she was, she did a lot of traveling, she had a boyfriend, and later, she forgave her dad and made peace,” she said. “The life she lived was hard. But her story and everything about her shows through anything, you can still be happy.”
Athena’s mother, Sharleena Antuñez, calls her “pure sunshine.” She keeps an “Athena Wall” at her Riverside home full of her portraits.
For the floragraph, which will be placed on that wall after the Rose Parade, Victoria Antuñez said she helped craft her sister’s hair, the contour of her cheekbones and her distinctive green eyes.
“If she could have seen me doing that, I think we would have had a laughing attack,” Antuñez said. “My sister has been through a lot, and she pushes through everything with determination. She had resilience. She just stood up and did what she had to do. She was very popular. Everyone loved her.”
At the Riverside hospital, Athena also touched lives. Staff at Riverside Community Hospital, who were with her when died, held a ceremony this past November. They wrote in flower vials that will be used in the float.
The Antuñez family continue to work for legislation calling for tougher penalties against fentanyl dealers.
Through it all, Antuñez said she misses the days she hung out with her sister.
“I would do Door Dash and Uber Eats and she’d go with me and we would drive all day, play music, eat,” she said. “It feels like a long time since she’s passed and at the same time it feels really short. I remember her but I can’t picture her in life anymore.”
She does see her in dreams.
“The last dream I had of her was last month,” Antuñez said. “She was just back, and always in my dreams, she tells me she never passed away. I got to hug her. And there’s peace.”
