things we all take for granted

So on Twitter for the past few months I have been following a support site for this eight year old girl named Ellie who has been fighting cancer and her family. The site can be found here. I would catch the updates every now and then, reading about how sick she was but always remained in a good spirit. Today I was on the bus home from school when I noticed on Twitter that they were saying how they are now down to the last few hours of Ellie's life. I clicked on her timeline and immediately found myself in tears as I read about this little girl who was nearing the end of her fight for life.

I don't know if its from watching my dad and grandfather suffer but I developed the mentality that their death was almost a relief in the sense that they were no longer in pain. I know not everyone feels this way, and I don't expect them too but its always been the way that I knew to comfort myself about someone passing. However, one thing just kept bothering me about this...

SHE IS ONLY EIGHT YEARS OLD.

I'm not implying that this would not be sad if she was older, because it still would but its just worse (to me) because she is a child. At eight years old, my biggest worry (well besides my father dying) was whether or not we were playing manhunt that night after dinner. If I was going to pass my spelling test. If my childhood crush (who was married last week) even knew that I existed. There were so many things in life that I had yet to experience at the age of 8. Hell, at the age of 22 there are still many things I have yet to do. This little girl will NEVER get to experience many of the things that we all take for granted in life.

I will say one thing though, from the look of her support site, this little girl was very loved. While yes, she won't get to experience a lot out of life she was still very fortunate enough to have family and friends who loved her so much and fought with her. Unfortunately, there are many people who cannot say the same thing. Also, even with the knowledge that her life was going to be cut short she did not let it get her down and it looks like she kept very high spirits as her condition worsened. I was reading that today while her mother cried at her side, she looked at her and told her that it was ok.

I guess that quote is true that Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

More about Ellie can be found Lift Up Ellie. I hope that Ellie and her family soon find peace and comfort during this difficult time.

I usually don't write about sad things like this but I just could not get my mind off of this today.