"My father died of a heart attack when I was eight. So my mother...

"My father died of a heart attack when I was eight. So my mother played the role of mother and father. She had four children to raise, so she had to go back to work full time. I know it was hard for her, but she always put on a brave face. I remember three days after Dad died, she was knocking on our doors, saying: ‘Get up! It’s time for school.’ And we said, ‘But Daddy just died.’ And she said, ‘And he’d want you to go to school!’ Pretty much her whole life was lived for other people. She always seemed to take herself out of the equation. Even when her cancer got really bad, she’d come home from the hospital, and she’d be broken hearted about the OTHER patients. She was always saying how broken hearted she was over all the young people she saw with cancer."