Anne Marie Fajgenbaum

Anne Marie Fajgenbaum ("AMF"), the woman who inspired the founding of National Students of AMF, lived a life devoted to her family, friends, and the less fortunate. She looked at every day as an opportunity to spread good in the world. On July 17, 2003, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Often, such a prognosis is tantamount to a death sentence. But for Anne Marie, this diagnosis gave her the opportunity to truly demonstrate the power of life.

Despite the handicapping effects of an exploratory craniotomy, radiation and chemotherapy, Anne Marie remained optimistic about the possibility of finding a cure for cancer. Her chances of survival grew bleaker every day, and yet she looked to her faith in God, the knowledge of her physicians, the love of her family and the support of her friends to help her to face the uncertainty of the future. She prayed for the strength and dignity to fight what some would call a losing battle. For Anne Marie, however, this was not a losing battle, because she knew that she would never give up. There was too much for her to live for to die without a fight.

As often as she could, Anne Marie would take weekend trips to Georgetown University with her husband, David, and her two daughters, Lisa and Gena. In spite of her growing weakness, she wanted to spend whatever time she could with her youngest child, David, during his first year away from home. As her condition deteriorated, however, she became more lethargic and less able to spend time away from home. Unable to travel, she would spend days saving up her energy for those precious moments that she knew lay ahead. One afternoon, Gena, her youngest daughter, told Anne Marie how special it was that she was able to move back home to spend the last year with her. As Anne Marie reached up and touched Gena’s face, she smiled and said, “Best year ever.”

A few weeks later, Anne Marie opened her eyes for the first time in almost a week. Her son, David, had been coming home every weekend to spend whatever time he had left with his mother. This weekend was different. As Anne Marie squeezed his hands, she looked up at David lovingly and said, “Unconditional love.” She never spoke again.

Looking back on the last two years of her life, it is clear that only someone who truly lived to find the joy in life, and who loved others so much more than she could have ever loved herself, could lie there helpless, facing her own mortality, and still believe that she had the best year ever. She remained the most beautiful, compassionate and humble person throughout her battle with brain cancer, just as she had done throughout her entire life. She proved that the greatest test of one’s character is not how a person responds to happiness and the promise of life, but how one responds to adversity and death. In order to celebrate her life, we must all take a little piece of her with us every day and allow her to continue her good works through our words and actions. “But if you trust in the Lord, you shall receive power,” Acts 1:8. This verse was her guiding light and the way in which she received power during her struggle, and she would be honored for you to look to these words in your own life for strength. In the darkest hours of her life, her faith empowered her to become the ultimate example of how to live strong.

We should all endeavor to live a life of love and kindness as Anne Marie did. In order to ensure that other families will not suffer as Anne Marie’s did, we must also do everything that you can to help families to find the promise of life, not the imminence of death.