It is with unbelievable sadness that today I'm celebrating the life of Erica Murray. I've posted about Erica quite a few times over the last few years and am still in disbelief that the unthinkable happened - on Thurs Dec 5th Erica lost her long hard battle with cancer.
Erica was an incredible person and friend and it's not an exaggeration when I say that today people across the globe are mourning and celebrating her life together in their own way.
One of the very first times I spent any time with Erica was right after she moved to Japan. I went over to visit her (when she first arrived we lived a couple blocks from one another) and we spent an entire evening chatting and laughing on the floor of her 8 x 10 apartment as they didn't have any furniture yet. It was one of those evenings where your stomach and your face hurt for days and when it's all over you have no idea what was so funny. I think the evening ended in "stealing" furniture from the garbage collection at a strange hour of the morning. We had many more ridiculous times, but the first has stayed with me as it's so rare to find such a connection with someone you barely know.
Erica made me want to be a better person pretty much from the day I met her. She had traveled more, studied more, had better relationships, better decorating sense, better time management, and this outlandishly positive attitude just to start off. Yet there she was, making perverted jokes and down to earth as anyone.
I am very grateful we got to meet up both in Boston and in Montreal - short visits, but we fit quality time into both somehow. Erica's house in Boston was such a home - it was filled to the roof with art, books, games and pictures. If it wasn't for the detailed list in the bathroom of her meds and the container of syringes by the vanity you'd have had no idea someone undergoing chemo far from home lived there. Our Montreal visit was more reminiscent of Japan - we just sort of stumbled around enjoying what Montreal has to offer in the summer. I'm trying not to get to caught up in the visit to California that I had planned that was still yet to come.
E, you fought this right up until the very end and I never for a second thought the cancer would/could win. You are so loved and missed, and now without pain.
Love you always,
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1 comment:
Chelle, your post is great and is much more eloquent than any post I would have written.
I only met Erica twice (once in Japan and once in Boston) but the girl blew my mind. Everything Michelle said about her is true. I don't think I have ever met a woman quite like her; she was awe-inspiring, having accomplished so much and yet still being so sweet. She was inspiring even before her hard-fought battle with cancer and her attitude during her 2.5 year battle with cancer and her activism to raise awareness of the bone marrow registry was phenomenal.
I hope that if you have yet to register on to the bone marrow's donor's list, that you do so after reading Chelle's words and are touched by the loss of Erica. Though she can no longer be saved, thousands of others could:
http://onematch.com/
Take care everyone
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