Brittany

Happy 2009! My first blog of the new year! It is kind of exciting... but the news I bear is not. I have been very busy the past week or so. Between working, house sitting, and getting my car stuck in the mud it has proven to be quite an interesting few days.

However, that is not what I am going to be writing about today. I found out some very sad news earlier that totally shocked me when I heard. A girl that I graduated high school with passed away from cancer on Saturday. She was diagnosed a year and a half ago with a very serious kind of bone cancer. From the very beginning the outlook was not positive, but that was the last I heard of it for a while. I do know that she had a great support group. Her sorority sisters raised money for her family by having 4Britt shirts and bracelets made. They also had a night at Chic Fil A that sponsored her family and what they made that night after a certain time went straight to the family. It is encouraging to see how her friends and the community reached out to Brittany and her family in a time of need.

Hearing the news this morning was a shock. I really thought she had gotten better and I never thought she was nearing the end of her battle. I was never very close to Brittany although we did know each other and she seemed like an outstanding young lady. She was an amazing athlete and was never someone I wanted to come across on the soccer field, she would tear you up if you did. Reading her facebook page earlier today it is was quite evident that she was an inspiration to so many people through her battle. I am sure she faced the cancer just like she faced the soccer field, with an attitude that she was going to win and the strength to take on anyone that stood in her way.

My heart goes out to those who were close to her and her family. Her parents are facing something that no parent should ever face, but sadly it happens way to often. It is my prayer that they will find comfort in her memory as well as her many accomplishments in a life too short and in God's grace that was with her through all her trials and suffering.

It is times like these that make us realize our mortality and existence. Everyone thinks of death as something that is in the future, not today. "I am too young to die." Unfortunately, that's wrong. Heather died at age 15 from cancer. Brittany just had her 22 birthday. Grayson was about 16 when a car accident took his life. Alicia was 19 and full of life when a car ran into her and stole her life. These were just a few of the young lives that I have seen taken. It just seems unfair. I know there is a divine plan for everything that happens even when we can't figure it out. I have a 98 year old great grandmother in a nursing home who we never thought would make it to see 98, but she has by the grace of God. It is a miracle, but what makes one worthy enough to see 98 years of life when others are striped of it at meager ages like 15 or 22? I know it is something we will never understand on this earth and I know God has a plan for every life. He will never call you home too soon or too late, but when one hears a story like Brittany's or Heather's, you can't help but wonder.


"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing." Agatha Christie