There is so much regarding weddings I want to blog about, but today I just can’t. I have sat down to post a few times this evening and all I keep coming back to is my dear friend who is fighting for her life. That is the only thing on my mind. Some people come into our lives and leave an impact beyond words. Emily is one of those people. When I met Emily she started to explain about the life threatening illness she was born with. She got about two sentences in when I interrupted and told her I knew exactly what she was talking about. I had already lost one family friend, Katie, to this dreadful disease and while a lot of people have never heard of it, I had unfortunately seen the severity of it first hand. Emily has Cystic Fibrosis, a hereditary disease which affects the entire body, causing progressive disability and often early death (wikipedia). Those of you who have first hand experience with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) know the ugliness of this disease and the pain it causes. My friend Emily is a fighter and she has fought CF so beautifully her entire life, never allowing it to rule over her. Through endless trips to the hospital and enduring invasive procedures she has found a way to live with this illness and has used her talents and life to spread the word about CF. I see the life that Emily has had and it reminds me of Katie and the life she didn’t get to have. Her life was cut short because in the end her body lost the fight with CF, but like Emily, Katie lived a beautiful life and found ways to push her body beyond the limits of the disease.
Emily has been in Intensive Care for almost 2.5 months and she has been fighting hard. She continues to fight and just today came out of a grueling emergency surgery, not to mention that two nights ago she endured 2 code blues and cpr as well as another code blue last week. I am amazed and inspired at her perseverance and determination, I am in awe of her fight, of her strength, and most of all I smile because of her heart and the beautiful person she is inside and out.