Here's to life
And to those who know how to live it
Here's to life
Every now and then, life gets you down. It might be a bad grade in an important class, a letter from your first-choice college saying “no thanks,” a break-up with a boyfriend, a demotion at work, not even being at work, or simply the realization that we haven’t accomplished everything that we thought we would have at 30, 40, 50 or beyond. It’s a momentary hiccup in the normal, clean respiration of our existence.
And then you happen to come across something that makes you realize how unimportant those temporary interruptions of an otherwise peaceful life really are. This morning, while reading the paper, I skimmed the obituaries section. As I’ve gotten older, it’s something I tend to do with a little more frequency than before, especially since they’ve started printing photographs of the deceased.
That’s what made me stop, mid-sip of coffee, and do a double-take. There, staring out at me from the middle of the page was the glorious and glowing face of a truly beautiful young woman. She was smiling, and the wattage of that smile would have put PECO to shame. And while the photo was beautiful, the story beneath it was heart-breaking. Jamie Brooke Lieberman died yesterday after battling inflammatory breast cancer for a number of years. They didn’t say how long she lived with the disease, but you got the idea it was a very long time.
After I got over the sock-in-the-gut feeling that such a beautiful young woman was gone, I read the snippets of her life that were squeezed into the nine or so inches of print. A life summarized in less than one column is hardly enough, but it does give you a feeling for the humanity of the person. Jamie was, in addition to being beautiful, brilliant. She had a Masters from Columbia. Jamie was loving. She worked with pediatric cancer patients. Jamie was athletic. She completed the 2004 New York Marathon. And she was obviously, and deeply, loved. Those left to mourn are her fiancé, her parents, her brother, her grandparents, and friends. They would probably have needed a lot more than nine inches to list those friends.
I can’t explain why I was so particularly touched by this obituary. Yes, it has something to do with the fact that a young woman who was robbed of her future made such a wonderful masterpiece of the present. It also has to do with that haunting smile, that couldn’t be extinguished even in death. I suppose it really has to do with the fact that I am becoming more and more attuned to the passage of time, and the very real probability that those I love will not be around forever.
As trite as it sounds, life is precious. Treasure it.
My dear Chris, what a touching commentary. Life is not evaluated by its duration but by the beauty and the quality that goes into it.
(Sadly cancer is an equal opportunity scourge.)
What you saw in the eyes of that young woman was the sparkle of a life well lived.
To life indeed.....to life well lived...no matter its duration.
God bless her and you.— Magistra- I hope for your sake she wasn't a Democrat. Because then you'd have to re-examine your entire purpose in life--making it hellish for the open-minded Dems.— sophistry
- Chris, I took the time to read Jamie's obituary. She was descended from Holocaust survivors.
Indeed she followed the noble traditions of her heritage and faith and made the most of the time she had on earth.
No doubt the family will continue a memorial to her. And if she has done something to raise awareness of how even young women can be stricken by bc, she will have saved the lives of countless other women. She fulfilled a holy mitzvah.
Again I bless her and bless you as antidote to all the poisonous comments directed at you.
L'CHAIM!!!!— Magistra 
Yes, I understand what you are saying, Christine, except in my opinion you have missed the point. Here we have Magistra, gushing, and sophy being her usual ignorant self. The point is that no one, from the moment of conception onward knows how long they have. The best that they can do is the best that they can do, for as long as they have. And then, goodbye.
They do not become their best by accident. They do that because of nurture or in spite of lack of nurture, for as long as they have. The time to appreciate and love them is from day one until day last. Gushing over an obituary is meaningless, too late. You cannot derive anything from a picture, only from those who knew them and loved them. Seize the moment.— PlumberJoe- PJ: Chris didn't miss the point and Magistra is far from ignorant. You manage to find negativity in almost everything. Commenting (not gushing)on an obituary is not meaningless. It allows us a glimpse of the life and accomplishments of an individual. I'm sure you would find negativity in Christ's Sermon On The Mount and his life, in general.— lport
- Hi lport, the man who knows everything without knowing anything.
Christ is my main man. Keep in mind, he was Jewish. In fact he most likely agreed with the Hebrew saying- ?אם לא עכשיו, אז מתי "And if not now, Then when?"
And that was my point. A bit too sublime for you to understand.— PlumberJoe - Plumber, we are not that far apart in our interpretation of this obituary. But, I think your patronizing word "gushing" is a bit off the mark.
If you can quote Hebrew then you can also understand the motivation of a young Jewish woman to save the lives of others if she cannot save her own. It is a true mitzvah, a holy kindness.
You already know, from countless posts here and elsewhere, that I am a bc survivor. Therefore, I am always touched by the death of any woman, but especially by a young woman whose life of promise is cut short by this awful disease.
So forgive me if I get a little "emotional" in my empathy.
We all see things through the prism of our own experiences. Christine sees a young life cut short and mourns it. So do I. We have all known too many young people who are no longer here.
But when a person makes every moment count, how precious is that?
You surely agree on my last statement/question.— Magistra - The Jews have a beautiful saying from the Talmud: "To save a life is to save the world entire."
Jamie did her absolute best to save as many lives as she could before her own brief candle was extinguished. That is her legacy and something to be revered and celebrated.
— Magistra - Oh, yes, Magistra, we are not far apart at all. We did place different emphasis on this tragic story.
IBC is rapid. We know little if anything on the background here from detection onward.
But why does it take tragedy to make us aware of the importance of caring and loving for others, especially ones close to us?
And what is the difference between the loss of this one person and the loss of an American GI blown to pieces in the Middle East.
We have lost our priorities in life. If we ever had them. Possibly I am reacting to the fact that once the "trigger` of fate" is pulled, there is nothing that we can do.— PlumberJoe - Plumber, all deaths, all losses are mysteries. This blog was not about death but about the ineffable and heroic way some people live their lives. And what that signifies to the survivors.
Do you think we need a "tragedy" to make us aware of how precious life is and how we should care for those near to us? We are old enough to have passed that threshold years ago. Christine in her prime may be questioning it all a little more than say a child or teen.
But a person who is dying like Jamie, is forced to focus on the meaning of life and how an abbreviated life can be worth something. She turned her dying into a "masterpiece" of living as Chris says.
What is truly poignant is that often we do not appreciate all that a person has contributed to the world until they have passed.
That is something to ponder also.— Magistra - Magistra, the piece starts with- "Every now and then, life gets you down."
And it ends with- "I suppose it really has to do with the fact that I am becoming more and more attuned to the passage of time, and the very real probability that those I love will not be around forever."
In between is a tribute to a heroic young woman, struck down in the prime of life.
You can connect the dots anyway you choose. Me. I've seen these dots many times. The dots tell me, yet one more time, don't squander even a moment when you could be sharing life with each and every one you love.
"As trite as it sounds, life is precious. Treasure it." FROM DAY ONE. And that is the extent of what you can control.— PlumberJoe - OK - what that all means to me is that we should never take anything or anyone for granted. This young woman is survived by her grandparents. That is incredibly sad. It takes life and turns it on its head. The young are supposed to bury the old not the other way around.
So where do we disagree? It is only in the semantics.
And of course none of us is in complete control of everything.
It is good to be reminded, even in our dotage, that life is precious and must be treasured by all, every moment.
— Magistra - Chris, I would give you one bit of advice and I am sure your fans would agree. The only way to handle these reminders of our mortality is to live always in the moment. Treasure that moment of course. Make the most of it. Once in a while do something extraordinary with those moments. Remember those moments that were so special to you in the past, and especially with those who are no longer around. Don't worry too much about the future which has not been created yet.
Rejoice in the blessings in your life, particularly the blessing of life itself.
Waste not a moment with regrets.
Be happy.
8-)— Magistra - Thank you for writing about this beautiful young woman. My son has been good friends with her since their camp days. She is quite a remarkable person and went through a lot these past years, never complaining, never saying why me! Her fiancé, family and friends have a rough road ahead of them, but they will be filled with loving memories of this incredible young woman who was robbed of length of years.— Psforma
- Paforma, I was hoping someone related to this extraordinady young lady would read this tribute. Deepest condolences to the family and friends on their loss.— Magistra
Email Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com Reach Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com.
