My second cousin, Elsie Foster, passed away today. She was in her mid-fifties. Elsie, named for my own Aunt Elsie, one of my mother's sisters, was the daughter of my cousin Irene.
No one really had any idea she was sick. Evidently she had two apple-sized cancerous tumors in her lungs that had already spread to a tumor in her brain and in her abdomen. The first I heard that she was sick was when her daughter Heather posted on Facebook Saturday night that she had taken her mother to the ER. Cancer was confirmed and she was checked in to a room that night. On Sunday, Heather posted that she was on morphine and a ventilator and would probably pass soon. She passed today, maybe an hour or so ago. How swift. How unfair. How unexpected. How hard on those left behind. No chance for a cure from this cancer. No chance for a dear woman who deserved a longer life.
I feel bad that I can't be up there in Maryland to help them and to comfort my cousin Irene, who has just lost a daughter, and to comfort her three children, her grandchildren, and her four other brothers and sisters. It's a tragedy, and all I can do is send my prayers and love via Facebook, phone calls, and actual snail mail cards and flowers.
Life is fragile.
Enjoy the day. It can always be suddenly gone. Live it like it's your last day. Tell everyone around you that you love them. Hug them like it's the last time you can ever hug them.
Life is precious. Life is fragile.
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