Crossing Over in to Heaven, A journey

I knew a girl who died before her time. I guess she and I could be considered childhood friends . . . but we weren't close. In fact, we hardly knew each other. We went to the same school but never hung out.

Then, in high school, I heard she got cancer. It must have been an especially tough experience because (I found out later from her mum) many of her friends deserted her during that time, and she had to cope through much of it alone. Maybe her friends were uncomfortable because they didn't know how to behave around her. Or maybe they were just scared.

Well, long story short, I "re-connected" with her about 1 or 2 years after she had been battling cancer, and we sorta hit it off. We had nothing in common, really, but, looking back, I think she appreciated the fact that I treated her like a "normal" person.

And the funny thing is, she was a normal person. If you ever heard us talking, you'd never guess that one of us was battling a terminal illness. She never complained, never lost hope, and never adopted a negative mindset. In fact, she found God during that time. I, on the other hand, was filled with teenage angst and had yet to reconcile with God.

During the last year of her life, she was too sick to go to school anymore so we wrote each other weekly. She remained cheerful through all her letters. There was no bitterness or resentment even though she had every "right" to be. Her dream was simple — she wanted to graduate high school eventually. She did not. In her last letter to me, she told me that she knew her time had come, and that she was ready, and that she was neither sad nor afraid.

Those words stuck with me. They did not change my life dramatically, but I've come to realise that a life well-lived lies not only in grand "public" achievements but also in the quiet heroism of handling personal challenges. Because, sometimes, it is in the nitty-gritty details of everyday life that true inspiration is found.