Dana Reeve, 44, dies of Lung Cancer

Dana Reeve, the wife of Christopher Reeve, died today of lung cancer. She never smoked in her life. I've never met her. I don't really know much about her, except for her devotion to her husband after he became a quadriplegic. She went from being a singer-actress, to someone who gave up her career to be one of the nation's best-known caregivers. I didn't know much about her story until I saw her on Oprah about a year ago. It was before she announced she had Cancer, a few months after her husband had died. She appeared on the show with her son, and talked about the grief she felt for her husband, and the relief she felt after so many years of watching him suffer.

I don't know why reading about her death has affected me so much this morning. People die everyday. By the hundreds and thousands the world over. But for some reason, this one particular death of this woman I never knew has deeply touched me. Maybe it's because she died of a lung disease usually afflicting life-long smokers, although she'd never been a smoker. Maybe it's because I just hate Cancer, in all its many forms and variations, and have a special sensibility for anyone suffering from it. Maybe it's because I cannot imagine what her son will do now--after having lost both of his parents within 2 years of each other. Maybe it's because I have been witnessing too much sickness and suffering lately, and watching the inevitable culmination of illness we all hope to avoid for as long as possible was particularly poignant. I don't know. But I hope with all my heart that this is the last loss this poor kid has to suffer.