RADKA GRIGOROVA
WHO FIGHTS CAN LOSE; WHO DOESN’T FIGHT HAS ALREADY LOST.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Would you fight for your life, if today you are diagnosed with cancer and the doctor tells you that you have 3 months to live? Will you do the things that you have never done? Will you hug your best friends and parents and tell them that you love them, or you will be anxious and maybe even angry about the fact that they will stay and live after you die? Will you read a lovely book or listen to your favourite music or you would you rather get drunk and celebrate the tragedy of life? Will you be grate- ful that you are still alive because you can enjoy life for what it is and not for what you have wanted it to be?
I had the great pleasure to know a person who grabbed hold of life and decided not to let death take control of it. This young person was diagnosed with a trachea tumour and the doctors did not believe that she would have much time to live; time to make her dreams come true. The young woman that I am writing about is around the same age as you are, and she has done the same things that you are doing, possibly listening to the same music, reading the same books and watching the same TV channels. Perhaps, however, there is a big differ-
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ence between her understanding of life and yours: when she learned that she had a trachea tumour she decided to embrace life. She was a fighter until the end and valued life more than anyone else. Many people are not able to achieve what she has done throughout the hardest period of her life. Annie never let life go by. Optimistically, although frightened by the imminent end, she once noted:
“I am going to die one day, we are all going to die, but I am not going to die of cancer, a bus is going to hit me, something is going to happen, but it is not going to be cancer!”
This is neither a story about a person who has died from cancer, nor about the sorrows of life or the pains of people you adore and admire. This piece of writing is a picture of the life we all should aspire to - life full of joy, smiles, positive emo- tions and battles for the best. This is about life and the person who knew what its true value is, namely Annie.
Are we giving the best of us and living our life to the fullest?
Are we doing whatever we want or are we trying to live in the norms?
Annie Dagorova was one of those people who, as she used to say, ‘lived her life to the fullest’. She lived for others, to make her family and friends happy and fulfilled. Her positive attitude always inspired great emotions and feelings in anyone who was close to her. Annie was a fighter who was brave and stayed energetic until the end. Through Annie’s eyes life was always pink and rosy; she always remembered the birthdays of those she loved. The burden of everyday troubles and failures often leads to our inability to express emotion and show concern to those who are dearest to us; egoistically, however, we often expect from others the attention, love and care which we did not provide. Unfortunately, quite frequently the pressure takes
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