It is with great sadness that I write this post tonight. A friend from high school passed away today.

I don’t want to talk as much about the loss, but the life and the love for that life. CPG passed today after a long battle with brain cancer. What a force she was.

We weren’t very close in high school, but through the years, like with many, Facebook brought us together and over those years, we laughed, shared, bonded, cried, screamed, encouraged and lived. She was such a fighter, she gave the disease a serious run for the money, when they say she didn’t go down without a fight, they meant it.

It’s hard to hide things on Facebook and CPG didn’t, she chose to share her journey with all of us, sometimes looking for encouragement, love and understanding and sometimes to get some of the frustration and anger she was feeling out. There were things we agreed on and things we didn’t, but that’s what makes us all individuals, we have that right.

My sister is my hero and a survivor, I learned so much watching and being with her as she went through treatment. What it did was teach me how to handle certain situations, what someone might be going through on their own journey, their own battle. I remember how my sister rocked the bald, so beautiful and brave and when it was finally time for CPG to rock the bald, I was right there with everyone telling her how amazing she looked and she did. Beauty comes from within and she was a stunner!

CPG had been posting up until about two weeks ago and then I didn’t see much from her on Facebook. The last post I really remember was about November 8th, a picture she posted of her fur baby, Cooper, and then, nothing. A few days later, people started posting to her wall words of love, hope, faith, encouragement, prayer. There were pictures of friends together, memories throughout the years, Facebook memories, random thoughts.

On November 16th, her husband, sent us a message through her page that she was comfortable, getting great care and although she wasn’t reading the posts herself, her family was reading them to her, so thankful for the love, support, prayers and messages we were posting, she was hearing them and it was a comfort to the entire family.

Since then, such an outpouring of posts on Facebook, candles in windows, lights and love in every message, family photos, friends, and Disney quotes and images. The girl was a Disney fanatic! I thought I was one, I think I might have to bow down to her. What I loved about that, so many amazing quotes from Disney and images that touched us thinking about her.

This morning, at 9:41am, her husband posted that we all lost a friend today. As much as we mourn the loss of a friend and send love to her friends and family, we must also celebrate the amazing woman that she was and what a light she brought to all of us.

She brought so many people together, some that knew her from childhood, young adulthood, adulthood, mom’s groups, teams, school, the kids lives she touched, she was so honored they called her Homie G! she was a second mom to the kids she knew and her kids friends, people that kept in touch every day and some sporadically.

Just look at what she loved to post on Facebook and share with the rest of us. Family, friends, her kids, her husband, who was at her side every step of the way. Photos of him sitting with her on transfusion and treatment days, shaving her head, sharing her journey through this POS disease. When it was time to share with the middle school kids what she had been going through since 2013, what would it be like, the new love she discovered when that time came.

Her love of…everything! Her friends, family, fur babies, her photography, the photos that she submitted and won contests for, her blog posts, her journey through life, it touched us all and there was no better tribute than to see what people have been posting for the last few days. The lights shining for her, the Disney posts, the words of encouragement and love. She touched us all is so many ways and so many different ways.

CPG will be missed, but she will also be celebrated for a life lived to its fullest and that is what she did.

Thank you CPG for what you brought to my life, I will always think of you and smile knowing what you meant to me and everyone who had the honor to know you and maybe even count you as a friend.