Favorite Chapters
Nina Lotfi
I enjoyed reading Mev’s journal entries immensely. They helped me connect and get to know her. It was a secret glimpse to the intimate thoughts of a stranger.
Facing The Facts/2 a reflection from Mev spoke volumes to me. When I read this chapter, my eyes were filled with tears and my throat filled heavy. Death does not always allow us time to reflect, to battle or make peace with its expected arrival. The humanness of her experience, the volatility of her emotions, they all made me feel her sadness and her pain in leaving the life that she lived so well. Her realization that death will not be easy; that letting go of people, things and actions she love will not be easy. She imagining those she loved moving on with out her, yet worrying about how they will do with out her.
Facing The Facts/3 (Letting Go) was another chapter that hit home. It summarized Mark’s struggle with accepting life with out her and even worse watching his Mev become not even a shadow of the energetic and enthusiastic achiever that she had been. These are sections through out the second half of the book that paint a picture of his struggle,
frustration and the feelings of powerlessness. He knows he must be strong for her and for the others, yet he is being emotionally drained and tortured by the process of her death. After all it is his Mev that is losing her hair, her words, her mobility, her chance to change the world.
Mark and Mev’s letters and the list of nicknames names reminded me of the universality of love. No matter how one spends his/her life, those symbolic gestures of being in love are shared by many. Genuine love is so powerful; it enables us in so many ways. Mev encouraged Mark to be confident and reach for the impossible.
Reading the book I concluded that Mark along with the rest of the people in Mev’s life can take comfort in knowing Mev lived a life she truly loved. She achieved more that most could dream, walked the very path she desired, and left her footprints on many hearts and souls. Her spirit for life lives on.
My personal reflection after the book was to remind myself of how precious every breath is. I asked myself, if death came knocking at my door will I be able to seek comfort in having lived at least a fraction of what I wanted to live and how I wanted to love? I admire Mev for finding her soul and living her every day in that spirit well before she knew the ending of her story.