never alone

Just yesterday, we found out that one of our employees had cancer.

Brooke walked into the managers office, stood surrounded by several of us - and plain as day, told us that she had pancreatic cancer - was diagnosed just a few days prior. The next words out of her mouth were heart breaking - telling us that she was told that she had eight months to a year to live.

We sat, silent.

Our manager was clearly trying to come to terms with what he was just told, kind of mumbling around. At that point, left the room with tears streaming down his face.

We all sat shocked and feeling heartbroken about Brooke - about what she has just been dealt.

We were all talking about Brooke the other day - tears coming to each of our eyes - not being able to hold them back. It is not okay that she's been given this crappy news. It's not fair that she has to fight for her life, when so many other cases of this particular cancer have ended up badly.

Each of us, lives only once. We are supposed to fill our lives with joy and appreciation. We are to care for others and take care of everyone we are able. We are to fill our lives with meaning and purpose.

My friend and I both work with Brooke - we know her personally and feel very badly for what has happened. We've decided that we're going to make her dinner each week and bring it over to her house - so that she doesn't have to worry about cooking. With that, we are going to bring flowers - who doesn't enjoy the presence of flowers?

For Brooke, I hope she is never alone in this. I know she has some family and friends, but it seems that a lot of people tend to leave folks that are struggling - people often just don't know what to say or do. She will have my care and concern and constant prayer ... that she is able to grieve this and move forward into enjoying the last bit of her life.

Uptown Girls

Today, earlier this morning, the world lost someone significant. Someone that had plenty of fans, family surely spread out around the world, friends that were meaningful in her life.

Today, the world lost Brittany Murphy, actress and singer among many other 'normal' things.

I'm not sure why she sticks out to me, but she's been on my mind today - her life being quickly taken away for no real reason (not known at this point anyway). Someone, anyone's life being taken like that, is scary. None of us know when we are going to pass, whether with notice or not. We could each step out of the house tomorrow and not come back. We could have one year, thirty years - none of us know. I think that may be the scariest part. Not that we'd be ready if we knew anyway.

I've seen several of her movies - all that I'm a fan of. I believe I connected with one of her last movies, Uptown Girls - for reasons surely clear enough that I need not have to write about.