LIFE AND DEATH

I am one of those people who read the obituaries daily. I am always amazed at what people choose to include in an obituary.  I have found that the full page length obituaries rarely leave an impact on me. I find the saddest obituaries to consist of only a few lines. A couple of times I have come across an obituary that impacts me for personal reasons. Recently I read an obituary of a young lady employed by DisneyWorld, which brought back memories of my mother's death:

BRITTANIE HANSON Brittanie Siobhan Hanson 1984 ~ 2010 "...Brittanie was only on loan to us; ..." Diagnosed in October of 2009 with ovarian cancer, Brittanie went head-on into the battle of (and for) her life with her customary verve and determination. She met this evil and hideous disease eye to eye every single day for exactly five months to the day and never wavered in her belief that she would ultimately be back in Florida doing sets, Day Parade and SpectroMagic. She was buoyed up and inspired by the example set by her Grandma Irene Hanson. Brittanie fought the good fight until she knew it was okay with Grandma Irene for her to stop... "We don't know who sent the Christmas tree. We suppose we will never know. But if you are reading this right now please accept the deepest thanks from us. You provided Brittanie and her family with the most precious Christmas gift imaginable. We spent many evenings in our living room basking in its light and the love that radiated from it. We will be forever grateful. As our darling girl would say, "TTFN.""

I spend a stupid amount of time wondering if anyone will notice when I am gone. Not only that, what will people say about who I was. Based only on the above portion of the young lady's obituary, I felt I truly missed out on knowing her. Am I a person like that? Or am I just another 2 inch portion in the obituary section of the newspaper? I know my family members will miss me, but what kind of impact will I have made on others? If I could live my life in costume or with guaranteed anonymity, I know I could be so much more. But I don't want my obituary loaded with callings I held or the number of times I was the primary president. None of this appeared in the complete obituary for the young lady. But I would say her life was well spent. (she was LDS)

Your Disney Family will always miss you Siobhan!!! Keep the Llama Love alive among the angels for me, and I will keep it going here on earth. Until we meet again, may God be with you and all of your family members. God bless.

~ Orlando, March 11, 2010


To Siobhan's family and friends,


Please know your girl touched so many lives. I had the honor to be her Attendant and we had so much fun! She loved her work and it showed. Please know that as a parent I send my broken heart to u. my sincere sympathy, prayers and thoughts are with all of u. please know your efforts of parenting shined through this precious gift from God she truly was a fantastic young lady.

~ Davenport, Florida
 


To the family of Siobhan - Let it be known that this lovely, classy lady has left behind more friends, and gave encouragement and strength to more people than you can ever know. Even during her OWN trial, she was ever there supporting, encouraging and being a bright light to so many others - words cannot even begin to express how blessed we feel for having known her.
Sending you love and light,

~ Seattle, Washington
 
Hello, My name is David Dwyer AKA beezel26. I did know Siobhan online and she was bright light and a friend to us all. I and many others were eagerly anticipating visiting her when she came back to Disney.. Unfortunately that was not to pass. It feels like I was robbed of all joy. We share in your grief and we really miss her. She made us and thousands of others at WDW happy with her joy and love of life.


Guilderland, New York