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AmysJourney · May 03, 2014, 07:49 AM

"Day #10

10 days, 10 emails, 10 emotional days.
134 emails (and messages from the forum) back to me.
289 text messages.

When I started out, my email-list was 22 people. Now it is 97, and perhaps many more if I counted the people who read my letters in the forum.

Before I started writing I knew I had some awesome people I met in my life. Now I know that there were many more than I had expected and many new people who walk with me.
I want to say thank you for this from a very humble heart.

My friend left yesterday, but I am going to tell you an incredible thing: The moment she left, within hours she texts me: "I am coming back on the 9th of May!" How awesome is that?!

Today I want to reflect on a few things you wrote, answer a couple of questions you asked:

1. Yes, I wrote down my whole story - and no, I have no intention of publishing it. But, if someone does after I am gone, I am fine with it.
2. Yes, my prognosis is very short but NO, I don't want to tell you how long I am given because at the end of the day it's just a number and you know me, I am a stubborn girl so I might outlive that number And if not, well then I hope I will not know in advance when it's happening exactly.
3. My company now works with 1200 senior citizens each year.

I think it is absolutely amazing to see the dynamic that this emailing thing brought forth. I wake up every morning to these incredible conversations.
I want to share two of these stories with the people on the forum with permission of the people involved in the stories:

The third day I emailed, Jonathan passed on the emails to his boss, Marcus. Marcus is 53 years old and his wife Jenny is battling ovarian cancer. Right now she is in an extensive, aggressive chemo and radiation cycle and she is suffering a lot. She became part of the email list and told her story to the people on the list, and she especially wrote about her struggles with her will to fight and to live. Jenny had slipped into a very deep depression and has attempted suicide. Two days after she told her story, my friend Nadine, who is a psychotherapist, contacted her and it turns out they only live 12 miles away from each other. Two days ago she visited Jenny and they have formed a deep connection after talking for five hours straight. Nadine and Jenny are now going to meet up regularly and I am so very happy that Jenny has found such a loving support and Jenny can use her skills as a therapist without the somewhat limiting therapist-client relationship.

Another story that amazed me was that Hannah, a colleague of mine from my journalist times, shared how she is struggling with finances because she had lost her job due to the downsizing of the newspaper she worked at. She had lost her house last year and with three little girls and as a single mom she is struggling to provide food and clothing and school supplies for the girls. She goes to the soup kitchen five times a week because the money she receives from being on welfare is by far not enough.
Daniel, head of a re-insurance company in London, read about her struggles and contacted her privately. After meeting her and witnessing her living situation in a one bedroom apartment in Kent, where Hannah has to share a room with her three girls, he has pledged a six figure amount to the family so Hannah can now concentrate on looking for a new job and will be able to provide her children with healthy food and whatever they need and move into a bigger flat within the next month or so.
Hannah will also use her skills as a journalist to collect these stories and publish them in a book in the near future.

I am so amazed by these stories, that happened simply by people connecting with each other and showing compassion, even for strangers. And it makes me so very happy, you can't imagine how much this means to me!

As to me personally, I am not doing so well this morning. I am having a lot of difficulties breathing, and I feel as if I want to crawl out of my skin, I feel so uncomfortable. I am so frustrated that I don't have more energy!!!!

With a lot of love,
Amelia"