Hey guys! I
have recently bought a new book called ‘This star won’t go out’ by Lori and Wayne
Earl. I want to share my impression of it with you. Well first of all, it isn’t
a novel; it actually is a collection of journals, letters, drawings and
pictures of Esther Grace Earl, a girl who passed in 2010. I really like the
fact that there are her personal journals and letters in this book. Due to that
you can kind of empathize with Esther and experience how she felt. You can definitely
see that she had ups and downs, but what impresses me most is that she remained
strong and did not wallow in self-pity. I’m not sure if I would be able to be
as positive as she had been when I would have a disease with such a low chance
of cure. There are letters were she wrote that she wouldn’t have wanted her
life to happen differently because things wouldn’t be the same. Of course she
wanted to beat cancer but it seems that she did not want to miss the experience
of having thyroid cancer. This attitude really surprises me because I always
thought that mostly all cancer patients ask themselves why they have to
suffer from this disease and would wish that it would have never happened to
them. Esther, however, accepted it and tried to enjoy life as long as she
could. I think that it is important to accept your fortune, stay strong and try
to fight it, although it might absolutely be difficult. ‘This star won’t go out’
should remind us all of Esther’s love for others.
Life of Esther:
She was
born on August 3, 1994 in Beverly, Massachusetts. She had two older sisters and
two younger brothers. Esther was diagnosed with metastasized papillary thyroid
cancer and extensive tumors in her lungs in November 2006. She and her family
were living in Marseille, France at that time. After seven months of treatment
they moved back to New England for further treatment. She definitely had to go
through a hard time, but she patiently endured radioiodine treatments, an experimental
chemotherapy, extensive medications and a bi-pap machine. Her mobility
decreased as Esther needed more supplemental oxygen. Due to that she started
making online friendships and created her own videos, which she shared with the
world. On August 25, 2010 Esther Grace Earl died at an age of 16 years.
Here are
the links to Esther’s youtube channel and her flickr account:
