the best in everything

my friend jen passed away on friday after her battle with ovarian cancer. i just can’t believe it. i literally keep walking around saying those words, i just can’t believe it. i think intellectually i knew this day might come … but i kept hoping and praying for a miracle. god, save her. please oh please. 

i keep revisiting her blog and her instagram pics and her facebook wall … marinating in her words and the images she posted and her funny little jen-isms. this was a woman who LIVED. she would get over-the-moon excited over a well-made latte, or a heaping cup of frozen yogurt. her love for her boys was limitless. she was a giver. when she got sick and wasn’t able to come for our road trip, her only concern was for me. i’m so sorry, em, she said. i’m so sorry to be such a bother. can you imagine?! no self-pity for this one. just beautiful concern for those around her.

she had a sparkle, an energy, a passion that spilled across the internet into the minds and hearts and homes of so many. thousands heard her story and were moved. i was moved.

jen took most of our family pictures, and i keep staring at them and thinking about her eye behind that camera. bringing out the beauty click after click. that’s what jen did. she wrote these words on her blog, after months of crappy and painful chemo, and in the midst of terrifying uncertainty about her future.

i’m ready to move towards the best in everything. 

i just am. 

she looked for the beauty. even in the darkest of times, she would find that hidden little glimmer, and focus on it, so steadily, so gracefully.

i’m oh so very blessed to have known her. i will live more courageously, fearlessly, intentionally and compassionately as a result of knowing jen.

god bless you, sweet friend. you are so very missed.

www.amistillagirl.com for jen’s story …