The Warrior Angel Army Grows ... and We Weep.

Over the course of the past two weeks, I have been made aware that two more lives were claimed by the Demon... and two more families were victimized and have been left in unspeakable pain.

The most recent, a beautiful 16 year old girl in England had her heart stop in the middle of the night after fighting bulimia for four years. She is described as vivacious, free-spirited, intelligent, charismatic and deeply loved by her family and friends.  She befriended the vulnerable and gave to others, while this disease was slowly taking from her.

The other "Bright Light" was a beautiful 25 year old young lady who resided in Maryland. She studied biology at Stevenson University and graduated summa cum laude in 2009. She was attending Central Washington University in her first year of graduate school and qualified as a runner for the Boston Marathon.

You may think it only happens to teen-aged girls.  It doesn't.  In October 2016, the same month the Demon claimed my daughter Morgan, it took the life of Dr. Kamala Dansinghani.  Dr. Dansinghani was 44 years old, had two daughters, and a life on the surface which was well-blessed. She was the salutatorian of her high school class.  She was valedictorian of her graduating class at Dartmouth University with a 4.0 grade point average. She graduated with a medical doctorate and a masters in public health from Harvard Medical School.  And in October 2016, in a yoga class, she collapsed and never regained consciousness.

Then there is Christine DeMasse of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.  She was 39 years old when the Demon claimed her.  She graduated from Rutgers University.

One of the many overlooked, unexplained characteristics of this disease is that it tends to impact some of the brightest and best of our time. More often than not there is a common thread that runs through, ties and binds together the obituaries of its victims, that is, these souls are usually intelligent, driven, intuitive, compassionate, multi-faceted with diverse interests and possessing an inquisitive nature.  So too are they stubborn and confrontational.  More often than not the disease does not claim as victims "... those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." (President Theodore Roosevelt)  The Demon goes after the upper echelon of our society almost as if it intuitively knows that its victims have the greatest potential for achieving great and wondrous deeds.

And so, through our grief, we must be resolute.  We must find strength, wisdom and courage to fight for those victims, those who are added to this Army of Warrior Angels.

There are no words of wisdom in this posting.  Maybe there are no words of wisdom in any of the prior posts either.  But, on this Labor Day weekend, I am reminded of the inspirational words of the late Jim Valvano, the former coach of North Carolina State who succumbed to cancer in 1993.  At ESPN's Espy Awards that year, Coach Valvano announced the start of the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research.  In his closing remarks that night, he stated, "I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have.  To spend each day with some laughter, and some thought, to get your emotions going. Cancer may take away all of my physical abilities.  But, it cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul."

So too, we victims that the Demon intends to leave to mourn, to have our grief slowly take our lives as we are consumed by this unspeakable anguish, we will not succumb. Our souls are intact.  Our hearts are strong.  We will lead the battle to save lives. Our Army of Warrior Angels expects and demands nothing less. And nothing less will we give.