Originally published on Bang the Drum

This has been my theme since last week when I attended the funeral of our friends’ daughter, a bright shining star who suffered from Cystic Fibrosis, diagnosed at age two. I talk at length about her on Newsgang (8/20), so I won’t go into too much detail here.

What I took away from the funeral of a girl who managed to live with a debilitating illness yet still graduate with honors from USC, get her masters in Montreal, and be weeks away from her doctorate at Penn State while traveling and speaking as much as she could is that she did not let one day pass without doing every single thing she could to reach her goals and did not allow herself the luxury of being distracted with anything that could bog her down, whether breathing treatments or self-pity.

She was remarkable. And inspiring. Even though I knew her, had seen her every week, worked alongside her for a couple of years, I didn’t know her at all.

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