Erin Tierney Kramp

Imagine:
You are in your early 30s.
You are happily married to a wonderful husband.
You have one young beautiful daughter.
Then ....
You are diagnosed with cancer.
You know you may be dead before your daughter grows up.

What would you have done?

Meet, Erin Tierney Kramp, she's the woman that was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 33 in 1994. At that time, her daughter, Peyton was only few years old.


Image courtesy of www.dcccd.edu

What do you think she's done?

Well, for sure she fought her cancer like mad. She flew all over the country to seek for best advices. She even studied alternative treatments and even unproved methods. She fought hard.

Unfortunately, even though she fought hard and adopted the attitude of never ever to give up, she lost the battle 31st October 1998 - 4AM. Yep ... she died. :( ....

But, what makes her story so special until Oprah has included her as one of the people who left "heartprint" for what she's done before she died.


Image courtesy of www.Oprah.com

As a mother who knows her time was almost up, with so much to share with the daughter she loved, she started to create tons of videos for her daughter to watch when she's no longer exist physically in this world. You'll be surprised on what are the tapes consist of. They consist of almost everything Peyton (Erin's daughter) needs for the rest of her life until her wedding day.

To mention a few there are:

• How to choose make up
• How to choose a husband
• How to prepare when daddy's remarried
  
• How to pick a career: "When you're picking your career don't pick what you think I would want you to do. Don't pick what you know would make Dad happy for you to pick. I want you to pick something, whether you're schooled in it or not, that you have passion for." - My mom never told me that ler!! -.- Still love you lar, mom :p
• And many more

Do you think she stopped there? Nope. She even prepared every birthday gifts for Peyton (nicely wrapped) and also ... wedding gift! It's like she's there for Peyton all the time especially the big events. As for the minor events ... Peyton can always refer to all the videos for answer. Her mummy will always be answering her.

You see ... death has always been such a taboo topic among most of my peers. And most of them live in a way that nobody around them is gonna die but they all will, including your beloved parents and even my beloved Kiky whom I thought will live forever (naive!) ... but she also has left me first. And to this moment I'll cringe thinking about it.

But that's just life. Things will go. They will end. It's what you do with it when they haven't ended yet that makes all the difference. Do you live a legacy or do you simply live deadly? It's up to you. Are you in denial or you face the facts and make the most of it?

Erin's struggle for cancer has reached out so many souls out there. If you simply Google her name "Erin Kramp", you'll find other blog entries, written by people who are so touched by what she's done and you'll also find The Erin Tierney Kramp Encouragement Scholarship Program. She has also wrote a book titled Living with the End in Mind; A Practical Checklist for Living Life to the Fullest by Embracing Your Mortality.



Thank you, Erin for your courage and the lessons you live behind. Your loving acts to Peyton has reached to the world and touched many lives. :) and hope your message will be heard by many souls who tend to forget that "death" is a sure thing and life is what you create it to be.