A website you must watch:
Documentary on Teenage Cancer in Rochester. Angela O'Laskey is the first patient interviewed and talked with. I recognized other familliar faces from Camp Good Days.
http://www.13wham.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=186887@video.wokr13.com&navCatId=300
Even though it has been weeks since Angela's death - it really became real to me today in two ways. 1) My camper Taisey called and I had to tell her the news. She told me how Angela had helped her with her make-up and helped her grab the attention of the counselor she adored by using some of Angela's dance moves. She said that she knew that after camp Angela would have to go back to the hospital because her port was still intact. However, Taisey never imagined that Angela would die. 2) The documentary above was shot over the past year during Angela's fight with cancer. It shows her without hair, with her wig, at school and with her friends - acting like any normal teenager would. And then - she is gone.
Sometimes I wish I could go back and talk to her about some things I wanted to discuss with her. Some aspects of our life that were connected not just because of our cancerous pasts. I don't understand death. Why am I alive and she isn't? Why did a one-year-old child get diognosed with cancer and survive and how come a 14-year-old dies from it? Nothing makes sense. I wish I could go to Strong Memorial Hospital and talk to some of the teenagers and children about cancer and just be their friend and make them stronger. I don't know how much I would help - but just knowing I had tried to change someones life would make not only myself stronger, but hopefully the child in pain as well.
Death is unfair. I don't understand it and truthfully... I probably never will.
Rest in Peace Angela O'Laskey.
2 comments:
Omg that was so touchin i read it and she was an awsome councelor i no Jenny and my Friend is dating Taisey
wow touching story
-Dean
Hi, my name is Caroline Borshoff. I went to elementary school with Angela at Allendale Columbia. She was my best friend at the time, and I still thought about her from time to time when I got older. I had lost contact with her when we both changed schools. I found out that she died right after she died. I had no idea that she had cancer. It wrenched my heart and caused my so much pain. Out of the blue today I searched for Angela on the internet so I could see her face again (I had done it many times before), and I saw your blog. It was really wonderful to read what you had wrote and inspired me to create my own blog. Thank you for what you have given me. I miss her too :'(. I wish I could talk to her once more and see her in person. It still affects me what happened to her, even though I didn't know her before she died. Right after she died in my English class we had to write a research paper and we could choose our own topic, mine was Ewing's Sarcoma, as I'm sure you know that's what she died from. I got the best grade on that paper than I had ever gotten before. A 100% :)
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