Letter to the Editor
Today marks the passing of Dana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve who played Superman in the movies, but who real story started years later when a horseback riding accident left him paralyzed. Yesterday she died of lung cancer at the age of 44.
Dana and Christopher Reeve leaved behind a story of love, loyalty, courage, and taking adversity and turning it into advantage. They took a situation that might otherwise have been a tragedy and used it to bring them closer to each other and to be an example of not only recovering but thriving. Together they raised awareness of the plight of the paralyzed and formed an organization to fund research and became a voice for promoting stem cells as a way to regenerate spinal nerve tissue.
Although Dana and Christopher are gone as individuals their work and their foundation live on. Their legend is part of the Tree of Knowledge and they live as an example of what people can accomplish in the short amount of time we exist in reality. Their lives inspires us to live the kind of lives worthy of being remembered. Their accomplishments are not only still alive, but they leave something for the rest of us to build upon. Their lives so us that even in the absence of an afterlife that we are not without some measure of immortality. All of us have the opportunity to leave behind part of ourselves if we choose to live the kind of life worth remembering as Dana and Christopher have.