I often think of the wife of Dana Reeve, the wife of Christopher Reeve, who in May 1995 had a horrific accident while riding a horse, followed by 10 years of misery without being able to move. She was an inspiration to everyone, but what happened was way beyond what we’ve seen any major celebrity have to endure for so long. Shortly after her death, Christopher Reeve’s wife, Dana, contracted lung cancer in her mid-40s and died shortly thereafter. The most amazing thing is that Dana never smoked. I consider this story, along with the 1999 JFK Jr. tragedy, by far the 2 worst celebrity tragedies of all time. A distant third would be the death of Princess Diana in France in 1997.
So how did Dana Reeve die in her mid-40s of horrible lung cancer, when she didn’t even smoke? The theory is that Dana was a very good lounge singer and because of all the secondhand smoke, she had cancer cells in her body over a long period of time. The next theory is that cancer cells like this come to life when the body is greatly weakened from a long period of pain from a horrible tragedy and great stress that would occur after Christopher Reeve finally died after 10 long years. I’m not a doctor, but this has always been my theory about smoking, or secondhand smoke, and cancer, which is the scourge of humanity and has been for hundreds of years. When the body is greatly weakened by stress, grief, and great periods of depression over a long period of time, the cancer cells come back to life and the spouse, or person under stress and grief, dies. The story of Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve is a story worthy of a great movie, one that I would love to write one day. What Dana Reeve had to witness and survive, seeing her husband in that condition for so long is an incredible tribute to her strength as a person.
My mother smoked for many years, but she quit 20 years ago. Just under 3 years ago, my father died of cancer at age 84, and while he was far from a good person or husband, my mother was married to him for over 50 years. Three months ago, my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and a few weeks later she is in hospice at 79 years old. The horror is that it seems that cancer cells are always in your body, whether you smoke, are exposed to secondhand smoke, or for other reasons. I have seen people go through major stressful events and die soon after from cancer many times over the years. The pattern seems to be very strong and repeats itself many times.
Will we ever see a cure for cancer in our lifetime? Does this world’s first of humanity make too much money to want a cure? I don’t have an answer to this question, but if human life on this planet is mostly about money and because of this money, nobody cares about horrible human suffering from cancer, then there is something very wrong on this earth. we all call home.