December 5, 2000

7:06 AM

"I got to do nearly everything I wanted, up to the very end." Today, the Florida Times-Union published the last entry in the cancer journal of Tara McParland, a news photographer who died Nov. 21 at age 33.
posted by rcade (4 comments total)

This story filled up two pages of the newspaper here in Jacksonville. It's rare that you see an article in a paper with such a strong personal voice that it feels like something published by The Fray.

The thing that amazed me most about the piece was that she wanted another photographer at the newspaper to be present in her final moments so a photo of that could run with her journal, even orchestrating how he should shoot the pictures.
posted by rcade at 7:13 AM on December 5, 2000

oh how trivial the things i worry about are...truly.
posted by th3ph17 at 8:28 AM on December 5, 2000

No kidding, th3ph17.

It's stuff like this that makes you step back and take a look at your priorities in life.
posted by gramcracker at 9:28 AM on December 5, 2000

Thanks for posting this, it was excellent and moving.

This awful disease (breast cancer in specific, cancer in general) is everywhere - my mother was diagnosed two years ago (she's doing great after chemo, surgery, & radiation), and a cow orker of mine lost her mother a few months ago to it (the mom was in her early fifties).

It's good to see someone who got to have a good death the way she wanted, surrounded by loved ones and not in pain.

It would be better to see a cure, of course, and best to see it prevented altogether, but unfortunately we're not there yet.
posted by beth at 10:16 AM on December 5, 2000