Daughter's Death Inspired Woman to Help Others

After her daughter lost her fight with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, this woman was inspired to care for others:

"There is an armchair in the living room of Fran Sax’s apartment covered with the stuffed toys that her patients have asked her to care for: Minnie Mouse sits next to a baby doll, bobbing on a sea of teddy bears.

But Ms. Sax is a hospice volunteer and her patients are terminally ill, which means she has essentially been asked to look after them forever.

“I think hospice provides all of the things that family members cannot supply at the end of life,” said Ms. Sax, 81, who worked for 48 years as a registered nurse. “And I didn’t realize until it happened to me.”

Twelve years ago, her daughter, Mary, a videotape editor at CBS News, died from a recurrence of Hodgkin’s lymphoma that first surfaced when she was 18. “She said, ‘Mom, I beat this before, I can do it again,’ ” Ms. Sax said. But the cancer, which was first identified in her thyroid, had metastasized to her lungs, bones and brain, and after five months of chemotherapy, she died."

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03neediest.html