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| Photo by John Davenport |
Ten years ago, I had the privilege to get to know and offer support to Brenna Liepold, an 18 year old who made the courageous choice to forego cancer treatment so she could enjoy her last year of life. "Getting chemotherapy isn't living," she told Good Morning America's Charlie Gibson in 2003. After years of battling rhabdomyosarcoma, a nasty and often terminal cancer in children, Brenna chose to receive palliative care so she could travel to Italy, make frequent trips to Chicago, room with her mother and aunt in Texas and live life as normally as possible, but like all the kids I've worked with who endured or succumbed to life-limiting illnesses, there was nothing normal about Brenna. By far, she was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. She fought hard to experience the simplest of moments especially love and laughter.
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| Photo by John Davenport |
Her favorite movie was Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. When I met Brenna, I had only seen the movie once in theatres, whereas she could quote it chapter and verse. After the second movie came out, I understood her obsession and often watched snippets of each with her, but I had not seen the Fellowship of the Ring in its entireity until after her death. Only then did I understand why it spoke to her so deeply. Yes, the film is about a quest, but not just any journey. For Brenna, the trek to destroy the Ring meant her own living in adversity -- in dying.
Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.
She picked right. So did my Old Man, he told 'em to stuff the treatments & lived another thirteen years, being a grouchy old prick the whole time, which seemed to be what made him happy. I would do the same thing. I don't want to feel like I'm dying in the last part of my living.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the decision is to keep taking treatments but the key is to know your options and be fully educated about the risks/benefits. The other piece, always, is to see our own lives as journeys and to be fully present to the moments that make us bothe human and spiritual beings.
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