This will be the eighth birthday that my true best friend hasn’t been here to celebrate. While her birthday is the 26th I wanted to make sure that she got all the celebrating she deserved so I started early. Eight years ago last week my best friend left this world of pain and suffering and gained a much more beautiful eternal life. While there is a day that I remember her leaving this world, tomorrow is not that day, so tomorrow I will celebrate. I will celebrate the life that she lived, the people that she touched, and the joy that she always overflowed with. Tomorrow my best friend would be twenty three and so I will celebrate her birthday as if she was still here.

As I sit here writing my heart can’t help but smile at the fourteen years that she lived better than most adults. Molly was simply wise beyond her years and taught me more lessons in our too short friendship than I could have ever hoped to learn. While the statistics may show she died incredibly too young from a Cancer that took her life from her, I choose to believe that she lived those fourteen years incredibly well. Molly lost her life to a Cancer that she battled courageously. However, that was merely less than the last year of her life…before that she had thirteen years and those are the years I want to remember today.

If you ever had the privilege of meeting Mo you were blessed. She had a smile that made a room light up and I remember sitting on my bed laughing at boy stories, our giggles nearly waking my parents. She had a style that was incredibly sophisticated. I remember shopping and buying matching shirts, to obviously be worn on the same day and convincing our mothers that we needed just one more piece of clothing. She had a heart that served others. I remember spending time with our siblings and the love and care she showed them all, whether it be watching movies or attending a sporting event. She had grace about her that radiated. I remember watching her dance and being in awe of how talented she was.

Molly was the best friend that kept all my secrets. She helped mend my broken 7th grade heart. She encouraged me in my school work. She gave me advice when mom’s didn’t cut it. She laughed with me at all our favorite inside jokes. She was my best friend. I still can hear the phone ringing at the same time every afternoon as she called and we reminisced about the school day that we had just spend together (many of the days riding to and from school together). No matter how much time we were together it was never enough. Now I treasure those moments that we spent together day after day. There is so much that I could say about my best friend but none of the words do justice to the amazing person that she was.

When Molly passed away my heart felt like it broke in two and not a day goes by that I don’t think about her. Every special milestone, every broken heart, every new secret, I wish she was by my side. However, instead of letting my life be dictated by the hole in my heart I choose to “Dance for Molly”. I choose to live my life to the fullest. I choose to spend time helping others. I choose to share my story. I choose to make my best friend proud. Molly was not only my best friend but also my role model. Even in her last days she lived her life in a manner that I only hoped to emulate.

Molly was many wonderful things, a beautiful daughter and sister, a brilliant student, a Cancer warrior, a kind-hearted activist,  a graceful dancer but more than anything to me she will always be my very best friend. Tomorrow I will celebrate the birthday of my best friend and I will smile and “Dance for Molly”. Happy Birthday my Beautiful Best Friend!

Maybe you knew Molly and maybe this is your first time “meeting her” but either way know that you have a beautiful life that is ready to live and she and I both want you to live that amazing life. So join me tomorrow in “Dancing for Molly” and living each moment in life to the fullest, and no matter what… ALWAYS REMEMBER…

YOU are LOVED and YOU are WORTH it!

<3MK