Arms wide open

While cleaning my apartment this morning I found my late friend Jo’s-Ann’s memorial pamphlet. It stopped me in my tracks.

Sunrise: 25th May 1980
Sunset: 23rd December 2012

She was so young; a victim of Lupus .

Jo’s-Ann defied all odds and despite her challenges with Lupus, became the lawyer she always dreamed of becoming. She found a way to make her own rules as she went along. She did not allow the sometimes debilitating effects of her illness to direct how she saw her future. She assessed her reality, made plans and followed through on the those plans that did not give any room to “limitations”. What an example for those of us, who have far less to encumber us.

Her approach to life, the unique route she carved for herself and her ultimate triumph, has inspired me to go in the direction of my own dreams.

Finding the pamphlet, reminded me that I have been delaying deleting her from my BlackBerry Messenger. The very act of which seemed so final. Somehow this was my last connection to her.

Arrived.

That’s her BlackBerry messenger status.

Arrived.

She put that up when she got to the US back in November. She went there on vacation. She never came back.

My last and favourite memory of her was at Queen’s Royal College Old Boy’s Dinner, which we attended about two weeks before she left for vacation. I stood to go join the buffet line and asked Jo’s-Ann what she wanted because I was bringing her dinner to her as well. She said “Everything!”

At the time, I thought to myself…WOW…the girl said everything! No thought about the hour of the night or carbs or that “everything” might be too much for her. She just said, “Everything.”

She had “Everything” that night and she did so with no regrets.

This is an important lesson for me and for others as well.

This is how we should approach life; with arms and heart wide open. Wanting, taking in, absorbing, consuming, embracing, giving…EVERYTHING.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.– 2 Timothy 4:7

When I look at her Messenger profile now, “Arrived” has new meaning.

Her work on earth was finished and now she truly has arrived. I am ready now to say the final goodbye.….I hit “Delete contact.”

Rest in peace my friend. We shall meet again.