Girl who raised $700,000 for cancer research dies

[jsw]

From here:

A young cancer patient who started a lemonade stand to raise money for cancer research, sparking a nationwide fund-raising campaign that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, has died at her home. She was 8.

Alexandra Scott, of Wynnewood, whose battle with pediatric cancer captured hearts nationwide, "passed on peacefully with us holding her hands," her parents, Jay and Liz Scott, said in an e-mail, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday.

"She just slipped away," Liz Scott told the paper Sunday. "You could see when she was ready. She let off a big sigh, and went off to sleep. She was very calm. For that, we're grateful. You're always fearful it's going to be scary."

This litle girl was originally mentioned in this thread, and this sad news was first broken, I believe, in this post.

[wdlove]

My prayers go out to her family and friends. God has called her home, "Welcome my good and faithful servant." She has inspired many others, what she has done will help many in the future. According to her parents she left this Earth peacefully.

[agreenster]

Life sucks.

[iJon]

seeing what an 8 year old can do really makes me feel pathetic in my lifetime. very heroic like. i feel for her family and i'm sure the world appreciates here contributions.

iJon

[QCassidy352]

Originally Posted by agreenster

Life sucks.

yes it does. When you think about all of the terrible people who go on to live long, undeserving lives, while this amazing little girl dies at age 8... yes, life sucks.

[virividox]

this kid could have changed the world, and probably would have; but we wont ever know. while so many people out there waste their lives

[themadchemist]

Originally Posted by virividox

this kid could have changed the world, and probably would have; but we wont ever know. while so many people out there waste their lives

It seems the best, the brightest, the most disarming ones, those are the ones who suffer the most. Alexandra Scott, Mattie Stepanek, and many others...

It's a sad world and sometimes you question the tyranny of life.

[CubaTBird]

as they say, reality bites

[Balin64]

By Peter Handke:

When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.


When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.


When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.


When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Is life under the sun not just a dream?
Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?
Given the facts of evil and people.
does evil really exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn’t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?


When the child was a child,
It choked on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding,
and on steamed cauliflower,
and eats all of those now, and not just because it has to.


When the child was a child,
it awoke once in a strange bed,
and now does so again and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful,
and now only a few do, by sheer luck.


It had visualized a clear image of Paradise,
and now can at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness,
and shudders today at the thought.


When the child was a child,
It played with enthusiasm,
and, now, has just as much excitement as then,
but only when it concerns its work.


When the child was a child,
It was enough for it to eat an apple, … bread,
And so it is even now.


When the child was a child,
Berries filled its hand as only berries do,
and do even now,
Fresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
and do even now,
it had, on every mountaintop,
the longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in every city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so,
It reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
with an elation it still has today,
has a shyness in front of strangers,
and has that even now.
It awaited the first snow,
And waits that way even now.


When the child was a child,
It threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
And it quivers there still today.