With great sadness I announce that Jen Smith, featured in an interview here less than a month ago, died yesterday (September 28, 2013) at the age of 36 from metastatic breast cancer.
Readers who receive these posts by email may not have had a working video link to see a 2 minute video of Jen and her son that was included with that interview. I am including a link to my original post here so you can either read the post if you missed it, re-read it, or just go to watch the video which appears at the bottom. I promise it is worth two minutes of your time. It makes me smile and cry in equal measure every time I watch it. It also tells the story of how Jen found the tagline “Live Legendary.”
The obituary the family posted appears here and you can read how much Jen accomplished in her too-short life. I wish I had known her longer; I am jealous of her friends and family who did.
Over the past few weeks we texted. Some days I just texted her to tell her I was thinking of her. Some days I would get a reply as to how she was doing. Some days I received no reply. Those were hard days as I worried so much about her, knowing she was about to die. I continued to text her almost daily in the last two weeks even when there was no response. My last text to her said, in part, “I cannot help myself from saying I love you for as many days as you are here to hear it.” When you have stage IV breast cancer you bond quickly with others who have it too. I do not know if she read that message.
Jen and I spent the last few months having very serious conversations about life and death. I wish we could have been two friends talking about other topics instead. But I am gratified that we could talk openly about some of the things were on her mind the most as she reached the end of her life.
My condolences to her friends and family including the light of her life, her sweet son, Corbin.
Link to Twitter