Goodbye, Dana Reeve
Mar. 7th, 2006 12:23 pmChristopher and Dana Reeve were remarkable people. Dana's devotion to Christopher after his horrific accident, and their joint commitment to their cause and their own lives together is something that can be truly admired. And it *can't* have been easy for them - yet they kept up their work and kept their private lives private (a rare thing these days, it seems) and never once strayed from their own personal committments. When Christopher died, I was torn in thinking 'he's free' on one hand, and yet being sad that health care had lost such a strong, intelligent and open advocate. Dana's continued committment spoke volumes, and gave me even more reason to admire her.
When I heard that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, I couldn't believe it. It truely did just seem to be that unfair. And even though lung cancer is one of the more virulent strains, I hoped that she could be one of the rare ones who could beat it. And true to her nature, it was announced she was infected and then we didn't really hear another word about it until this sad announcement of her death from the disease. My heart breaks even more thinking of Dana and Christopher's 13 year old son, and how he must be feeling having lost both parents in such a short time when he is so young. Certainly there are family & friends comforting him, and no doubt telling him to be proud of the people his parents were, but I'm sure on one level he just doesn't care about any of that and is just angry & hurt. I hope he works through that as best he can and as quickly as he can, becuase he did have remarkable parents and I cant image they want him to be anything other than happy.
It's hard to find heroes that are real flesh and blood; it's hard to name how you measure a 'real' hero. My heroes have always been those people who embody true compassion, commitment and the humor you need to get through things in life. Christopher and Dana Reeve were 'real heroes', in my own view of things, and I hope I demonstrate such qualitites in a regular fashion.