Jenny Doherty Lazary, November 25, 1969 - July 19, 2012

Hello my friends,

I was sitting in my garden this afternoon / evening reflecting when a little bird alighted on my fence and started twittering like crazy.  I looked and said "little bird, today is not a day for being chipper, today is a sad day."  The little bird paid me no heed (of course) and continued chirping away with careless abandon; so much so that a little friend came to join in.  Birds will be birds I suppose.

This had interrupted my sad reflections (obviously), but only to a degree.  I had previously been thinking about how sad it was that my cousin had passed away in the wee hours this morning having finally succumbed to the cancer that she had been valiantly battling for the past two and a half years.  Jenny was eight months younger than I am and we had spent lots of time together as kids.  Our families used to spend Christmases together.  As we grew older, and we moved physically apart, we didn't spend as much time together as I would have liked (for all the little reasons that life throws at you) but whenever we did see each other as adults we always got along just as we always had.

Before the birdsong, I had been feeling sorry.  Sorry for her mom and dad, because it's just not right to lose a child no matter how old they are.  Sorry for her husband because they had known each other longer now than they hadn't and I could only imagine how hard this was going to be for him.  Sorry for her son because he is almost sixteen and that's too young to be deprived of your mom, especially one as great as Jenny.

After the birdsong though it occurred to me that one of the great things about Jenny was her attitude towards life.  She was cool without trying, laid-back, smart without making a big deal about it, and funny.  She took things as they came, and when bad things came she took those in stride and just dealt with them.  She wasn't perfect, none of us are, but if her afternoon had been interrupted by birds she would have probably welcomed them.  Jenny was given a fair number of lemons in her life and she had no problem turning those lemons into lemonade.  Not that she would necessarily drink it, she would probably prefer tea, but I'm sure she gave it to someone.

When Jenny found out she had inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), she didn't just lay back and accept a death sentence:  she was determined to fight as hard as she had to.  And fight she did.  It wasn't easy, but she didn't give up because it wasn't in her nature.  The problem with IBC is that it's not usually detectable until it's already spread to your lymph nodes.

Jenny was beautiful inside and out.  I will miss her very much, but I will always remember her as one of the most positive people I know.

So, I'm still sad, but not quite as much.  Remembering Jenny (her laugh especially) cheered me up a little.

Thanks for tuning in peeps!  Drive safe and remember to call your loved ones when you can.