Lessons Learned
Cancer Steals
I miss her. She had end
stage cancer. Although she had battled cancer twice before and won, this time
was different and she was very tired. She was a mentor, a role-model, a light
in the darkness, an endless giver, a perpetual hugger, a tireless servant, a
champion for the voiceless, a babysitter for my boys, and a dear, dear
change-your-life kind of friend. She was the person who, when she entered a
room, all in the room were made better simply by her quiet, loving presence.
She, in her vivid and brilliant imagination, constructed programs to serve
those in greatest need in our community and then somehow managed to graciously
sidestep the voluminous red tape of well-meaning committees and enact her
loving programs, always serving up smiles, hugs, and assistance. She danced
ballet. She painted beautiful pictures. She basked in God’s glorious creation
all around her. She fiercely loved her family and her neighbors. She loved. She
lived. And in her living and loving she taught us lessons of infinite and
eternal importance without ever writing a lesson plan. She poured more
life and living into her short years, than most people do in ten lifetimes.
When the end was near and exhaustion was mercilessly gaining, her husband
called and asked if I had a few minutes to visit with her. Dropping
everything at the tiniest chance to give to this matchless giver, I raced over.
He said she was tired and that a few minutes would be all she could
muster. Whatever she wanted. Whatever she needed. So we talked and talked
and laughed and reminisced and before long, she asked her husband for an old
photo album which together we wandered through with waves of emotion swinging
from giggles to tears. It was precious, precious time. A deep and lasting gift
from her which I will forever cherish. We shared time, the priceless
treasure. The gift had nothing to do with the right most eloquent words
to say or the loveliest purchased present; to be sure, and any thought to any
of those would have diminished the true gift which was simply shared,
treasured, beautiful time. A perfect time that I was blessed forever to
share. Time. She passed and left the world much more beautiful than she
found it. I am a life changed because she lived.
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