There are some people who come into your like a whirl wind. They come in so fast and so strong that you actually find yourself standing there wondering why. Why did this person start responding to your tweets? Why did this person friend you on FB? Why should you even care about anything this person does?

And you can stand there asking yourself those questions all day, every day but it’s never going to get you any where. Even if you’re not a Twitter or FB person I know you’ve encountered these people. They come in like a tsunami and as fast and strong as they’re there, they’re gone with nothing but a memory behind them.

And this is where I find myself at this moment, standing in the wake of JS. She came into my Twittersphere out of nowhere a few months ag, almost immediately acting as my own personal cheerleader. I’m sorry to admit that I was a bit sceptical about this at first, but changed over time. There were things going on in my life that involved stalkers and an emotional roller coaster of a relationship that made me skeptical of everyone around me. But JS stayed strong. She enjoyed every blog post I did and responded to my early morning tweets as loyally as my coffee pot brews in the morning.

The past few weeks I’ve noticed that JS’s tweets have been few and far between…actually I hadn’t heard from her in about 2 weeks. As any good tweep would do, I went to go stalk her Twitter timeline, and this is what I saw, “Was nice knowing some of ya!!!! 36 more hours. Just 36….”. I should mention that this is a woman who put forth amazing effort to find a woman who had helped her relax on a flight this past January. She had put forth an amazing effort to find one single person who had simply calmed her down just so she could say thank you.

And she accomplished that. She found that woman she had met on the flight 9 months ago, she found her guardian angel. My hat goes off to JS and her efforts to give one person a simple ‘thank you’. All this effort and heart made me proud to know her, but also broke my heart today when I found out that JS was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.

She thought she had nothing more than simple bronchitis, but upon further testing it was discovered that JS does, in fact, have cancer. Evidently JS has decided to spend the rest of her life volunteering her time to help other people, to spread the joy of life, instead of getting treatment which she believes will not cure her. This is a woman who has spent months telling me about the strength that she received on one flight from one woman. She has been telling me almost daily about how she has always been looking for that strength but had never found it until January.

This woman who never seemed to fully believe in herself suddenly seems to have felt the freedom of life. As long as I have ‘known’ her she has called herself ‘boring’ and never given herself any credit. But what I see is an amazing woman’s journey from caterpillar to butterfly. Yes JS, faced with death, you have found yourself and your purpose. You are going to change the lives of so many in your final adventure. Please know that you have already touched my soul before this final adventure has even started.

You give the woman on the flight so much credit for being such an inspiration, but please know that your amazing acts on this final adventure are an inspiration to some many more than just one person. I wish you all the happiness and joy throughout this final adventure. Please know that your story of hope and determination will live on through me. You are truly more amazing than you give yourself credit for, I hope you realize this soon. God speed and God bless.