I have just lost a friend to cancer. She was only 28 years old. Dealing with the fact that she was gone caused me much grief, but it also reminded me of so many happy memories she brought to the people in her life. Whenever I think of her, it was never a memory of a sick person. It was a memory of laughters over a gigantic bucket of Ben and Jerrys (20 scoops I think) she tried to get us to finish back in my first lonely year in the state. It was a memory of when I didn't feel so cool about myself, and she would just simply listen to my silly goofy self without judging, completely accepting an imperfect me for who I am. Then, there was a memory of my first thanksgiving when she let ten of us crashed in her little dorm room at Dartmouth, simply because she didn't want us to be all alone since we had no families there.
Her life was nothing short of an inspiration. During the three years of fighting with cancer, she never gave up on her goals. She managed to make all of us proud by finishing her PhD, only four days before she passed. Her death gave me a chance to reflect on my own life. There was so much good in her that I have decided to always remember her by trying to become a better person myself.
In an honor of our beloved friend, Dr. Mananya Tantiwiwat, apart from donating to the charity for a cause very close to her heart, The Susan G. Komen for the Cure, I have also decided to pledge that every year, on the anniversary of her birthday, I will donate one of her favorite food, ice-cream, to the less fortunate children. In this way, I hope that her happy face whenever she shared her ice-cream with us will always be remembered through those kids' smiles from the little joy in life I hope to be able to bring to them, the same way she had brought much joy to ours.
In loving memory.
Dr. Mananya Tantiwiwat
(1982 - 2011)
a Thai Scholar Friend
No comments:
Post a Comment