A Real Life -- It's a Wonderful Life

Yesterday, on Christmas day, I felt like I was given a great gift by having the opportunity to meet an incredible eighty-ish year old woman.

The woman has had an extraordinary number of challenges in her life. She's currently fighting pancreatic cancer. About 30 years ago, she lost her first husband to the same type of cancer. She re-married to a minister who passed away about 10 years ago. She's now married again for a 3rd time. She raised a disabled son. When she was a teenager, she was in a severe car accident, that killed one of the other passengers and put her into a hospital for four months.

Yet, through all of that, she says that she's had a "blessed life". She told me that she's had 3 wonderful husbands, great parents, her son is now doing very well for himself and she's always found a way to be happy. The emotional impact of the car accident when she was young always helped to her to appreciate all of the moments of her life.

As far as her current fight with cancer, she said she's going to leave the "whys" to the scientists... she's going to fight ... but she has had a wonderful blessed life.