I first met Angel a few years ago during a Breast Cancer Survivor photo shoot that the Wife and I were doing at Baylor Medical. I heard her before I saw her. Trust me, that’s the way most people first encountered Angel. Her huge laugh boomed through the hospital corridor and I looked up to see this Amazon woman with a great big smile plastered on her face. I thought to myself (like many others did, I’m certain) that there was no way this woman could have been sick. She was so full of life and laughter and she had the fire of a natural born fighter. So, yeah. That was Angel.
Angel was truly not given any other option but to be a fighter. She was born with a lung condition that kept her tiny four pound body in the hospital for months after her entrance into this world.
Standing there, camera in hand, I was taken aback by this woman wearing a black and pink “Fight Like A Girl” t-shirt, jeans and engineer boots. She had survived another brush with death, breast cancer. And, she had done it with the courage, charisma and vitality that only she could. It was less than a minute after her arrival on the scene that the other survivors who had shown up for their photos were nearly in tears from laughter. Myself included. Yep. Angel was on the scene. No doubt about it.
A year later, we met once more, again at our annual survivor photo shoot there at Baylor. This time, she was at the top of her game and any sense of quiet or sadness that may have crept about in the halls of that hospital scampered away like a rabbit from a fox as soon as Angel walked through the doors. Her mom, Becky, was walking beside her and it appeared as if there was no natural physical way that that little lady (less than five feet tall) could have given birth to the Amazon woman strolling beside her. Yet, Becky was just as feisty as Angel and it was incredible to see the pride in that lady’s eyes at the daughter who refused to be defeated in any shape, manner or form.
Having been through several surgeries, already, to repair the damage that the breast cancer had inflicted upon her, you would not know that Angel had lived anything but a perfectly normal, disease-free life. Honestly, she just did not have it in her to give one grain of her life away to something as insignificant as sickness. Screw that. She was a survivor. Period.
In moments, she had mentioned the latest surgery which had replaced a missing nipple that the mastectomy had taken. Now, keep in mind that I am the only male in this gaggle of women and Angel sensed immediately that I was the perfect target. She aimed her sense of humor at me, prepared her off-color commentary about her own body (to embarrass me) and let fire. Becky replied with a comment that I will never forget. With regard to Angel’s surgery, she stated, “She is so damned proud of that nipple!” Everyone kind of lost it at that point.
It was difficult not to admire and fall in love with Angel’s strength and personality. She was her own woman and she took no guff from anyone. She was who she was and she was infinitely proud of that fact. I understand her younger years had had their fair share of trials and tribulations, but she had most certainly come into her own and her survivor instinct led her to be super secure and confident in herself. Hell, how could you not admire that?
I got to know Angel a little better over the years, with her not missing a single opportunity to tease and embarrass me. She seemed to love making me uncomfortable, and I admit to loving that she loved it. That sense of self-confidence and strength and humor… I was as drawn to it as anyone else was. And, my Wife just ADORED Angel. The two of them hit it off almost the minute they met. I wouldn’t have expected anything less.
I took some more photos of Angel, at Breast Cancer Survivor fashion shows, with her parents, with friends. We hung out and watched movies at her place. We laughed. We lived in friendship.
Then, in December 2010, Angel came up against her next battle: leukemia.
Damn it. That girl just had to stand out. She didn’t just come down with leukemia. Nope. At age 39, she developed children’s leukemia. That put her in less than one percentile of the population. But, she was a fighter. That was just who she was. She wasted no time in beginning treatment. She went in for radiation for months; chemo; she underwent a stem cell transplant; and, she fought through staph infections, along with two separate lung collapses.
It was all just too much.
On July 23, 2011, less than a week before her 40th birthday, our friend decided enough was enough. But don’t think she passed away without a battle. The girl should be a statue in front of hospitals everywhere as a sign of what one person can go through and still win the decision.
I regret not having more time with this amazing woman. I consider her to be the strongest woman I have ever met, and the world will be hard-pressed to prove me wrong. I will miss her laugh and her teasing. I will miss the person who made me proud to be called her friend.
Her dad, Allen said it best: When she got to heaven, they didn’t meet her with wings and a halo. No, they handed her her shiny new sword and shield and breastplate. She’s ready for battle again. And I pity those who stand against her.
One of the current on-going conversations surrounding epublishing and ebooks is the pricing thing. How do you price a document that has no “physical” (or, even, to an extent, distribution) costs?