Dr. Jerri Nielsen: "Now I Go On"

After returning to the United States to finish her cancer treatment, Nielsen wrote a book and spoke about her experience all over the world.  She married Tom Fitzgerald and returned to her previous work as an emergency room physician.  Like so many cancer patients, she turned her story into ways to help others.  CNN quotes her from a 2006 interview with Psychology Today, "The things that make you strong, and make you feel as though you've accomplished something, are not the easy ones; it's the things you had to work and struggle through. Those are what give us our depth -- that make us not gray and plain and nothing but give us depth and texture and longing.

"I believe you're always much better off knowing what the real truth is. I think it's only then that you can come to grips with your illness, or with any difficult situation. Some people call this process 'mourning.' I prefer to call it tiring of the fear and the depression and the denial, and the fake optimism and the irritation of it all -- and just saying, 'Hey, I'm tired of feeling bad about this. Now I go on.' "

Even after her cancer recurred in 2005, Neilsen continued to be an inspirational speaker until very recently.   I wish that she could have died during a slow news week!  In this week when the newscasts are giving tribute to those who shared their gifts of laughter, music, and beauty, I wish that just a little more attention had been paid to Jerri Nielsen, who turned terror into teamwork, and who taught us how to find inner strength.