Loss

One of my students died. She had leukemia.

I have only known her for 7 weeks, and have only visited her a handful of times, but I'm finding it hard to accept her as gone. There is something not right about the death of a child, a child suffering.

Despite her mother's upbeat demeanor and talks of a good prognosis, for some reason I felt she may not make it through the year, but I had no idea that after only being diagnosed 8 weeks ago would she pass away this week. I have never spent time with a patient undergoing treatment, and have only read heroic accounts of "beating" cancer, so I wasn't sure what succumbing to the disease might look like. I'm still not sure I do, because she certainly seemed to be holding on, keeping her life, despite the discomfort I knew she was in.

My emotional nature has my mind cluttered with those trite lessons of life now. More than anything it is a reminder of the fragility of life.