An acquaintance of mine from high school passed away on June 13, 2008. Her name was Becky Williams and she died after fighting Melanoma on and off since our junior year of high school (10 years ago). I was never a close friend of Becky, but my good friend Brett dated her for six months as juniors. I cannot remember any particular conversation that we had, but I do remember that we were friendly with one another and talked during lunch on "the grassy knoll".
When Brett and Becky started dating I gave him crap about a rather large mole that was on Becky's neck. I joked around about him nibbling it while kissing her. Fast forward 10 years to Becky's father speaking at the funeral of her amazing spirit and battle through her ordeal with cancer. He said that it all started her junior year with the mole on her neck. (I'm probably going to hell for that.) They had it clipped off and biopsied. It came back showing she had melanoma. (A close friend of Becky's told me at the funeral that she used to always lay out in the sun without sunscreen to tan because she was so pale. :|) I believe she went into remission a few times while her husband and young daughter stood by her side. Becky's daughter Brooklyn was at the funeral and I think she is three years old and probably too young to fully grasp what was happening even though Becky spent numerous months in bed hooked up to machines before her passing.
I saw a lot of familiar high school faces at her funeral and it's a shame that two people from my graduating class of '99 have already passed away. Both due to cancer and both people that I used to eat lunch with. :-(
RIP Becky!