“The test of my life begins today,” wrote Shira z”l on her Facebook page, when she began her battle with cancer. “The time has come to implement everything I learned until now. It will not be a test of a few hours, after which you can put down your pen and forget about it. It is a test that will define me, a test that will change my life. There will be challenges and obstacles waiting for me in the course of this test, but it will still be possible to pass it. It all depends on your approach. There is no place here for errors or failures. There can be only one result – victory.”
It is left now for us to wonder: How did Shira define victory? Did ‘victory’ mean rising above her physical pain? Did it mean using each situation, as difficult as it may be, to grow spiritually? Did it mean using her newly found empathy and sensitivity to encourage others while she herself floundered in a nightmare of confusion and terror?
If so, Shira ended her battle triumphantly waving the flag of victory.
A glimpse into the beliefs of this valiant soldier:
One of Ezer Mizion’s Donald Berman Rehab Center’s many programs of support for cancer patients is its Visual Arts Workshop under the auspices of a trained psychologist where participants learn to express their innermost feelings. Using art as a medium, the patient enters into a dialogue with herself, makes new discoveries and becomes empowered in her ability to recognize her thought processes and make decisions.
Shira was one of the many participants who presented her material in the recent art exhibit entitled Boker Tov (Good Morning).
“I believe that everything happens for a reason, Shira said at an interview upon presenting her masterpiece, Awakening. “It was not for naught that I worked for years in the field of personal development, which gave me the tools to cope and pass it on to others. There is a saying that when something bad happens, you have to look for the gift that is hiding behind it. I found much positive in my new rea
lity and used pictures and sayings to encourage both myself and others. The illness taught me many things among them that our time here is limited,”
Over a thousand people accompanied Shira Chayun z”l, 29 to her final rest. Her sister described her as beautiful, even when she was bald. Her beauty was inside her. You couldn’t help loving her.
Her grade? Victory Par Excellence!
