Farrah Fawcett loses her battle with Cancer at 62

There were several thoughts and reflections that passed through my mind as I read this headline. I remember I was in elementary school when Charlie's Angels was a big hit. My friends and I pretended we were Angels all the time. I had to play Kelly because I have dark hair. I always wanted to be Jill, but that role went to my cousin, ironically named Jill, because she was blond. I remember carrying my badge and toy gun to school (that was when you still could) and Norman went through my purse that I especially bought for the role. He teased me incessantly! He also got into a lot of trouble for snooping through my things! We dated for a short time in high school. He really was a sweetheart, just a boy, though. And I was just a girl wanting to be more than I was.

I also thought about a dear friend of the family, Katie, who lived on the boat with us. She lost her battle with breast cancer in 1992, she was not as old as Farrah when she died. Katie was in her early 40's. When her cancer was discovered it was too late to do much, and at the time there was not much known about how to treat breast cancer. As an RN and scientist, she gave herself to research at Bethesda and they learned some things through her time there. I like to think that treatment options are better today because of the small piece Katie played in research work.

The most important thing that came to mind in reading Farrah's story and looking at pictures and hearing other peoples thoughts was, we need to make sure our priorities in this life are straight. We really never know how much time we have on this planet and I hope we all live to the best of our ability. There is a certain amount of survival instinct necessary because we are animals, but also as thinking humans we must add a component of quality. Tell those we love that we love them, give them our time when we have none to give, share, explore, participate and live. As a recovering alcoholic, I like to think that I have a greater appreciation of what life has to offer from a quality standpoint because I missed so much of it in the selfishness of my addiction, and I have a lot of making up to do. Even though I didn't know her personally, my perception of Farrah Fawcett was that she lived life well and loved well and did something to change the world around her.