Today I lost a friend to cancer. She was, quite possibly, the healthiest person I had ever met. All state track star, marathon runner, spinach smoothie drinker, etc.
She was also a wife and new mother. She died the day before her daughters first birthday. I know life isn't fair, but this blows. her daughter will never know her mom and what a wonderful person she truly was. She will know she was loved, but will never begin to fathom how much.
My friend, Leanna started a new job and on the first day, she also had a MRI appointment to check out a lump on her leg. Turns out she had neurofibrosarcoma. A cancer in the nerves.
Start the chemo. More chemo. Uh oh, spots in the lungs. Surgery to remove them. Chemo didn't work, amputate leg above the knee. Brain tumor. Surgery. More spots on lungs that can't be surgically removed. Another brain tumor. Today, 9 months after being diagnosed, my friend is dead.
The news hit like being punched in the gut. I had to call my mom and tell her that a girl she loved like a daughter had died. Tomorrow my mom was setting out for Michigan to go to the first birthday party of Leanna's daughter. Now it looks like we will be driving up to a funeral.
Through it all Leanna was a fighter. She had a great outlook and never got depressed. "What good would it do?" She asked. In every photo she grins from ear to ear. I will miss that smile. My daughters are absolutely destroyed. My mother is trying to work through tears. And I am trying to remember my friends motto. "Don't cry for my pain, smile for my strength."
I'll try, but it may take awhile.
