When people find themselves battling a fatal illness, they end up having to come face-to-face with their own mortality. This is exactly what happened to 27-year-old Holly Butcher, who discovered the year before that she had a rare form of cancer in her bones. The day before she died, Holly penned a note revealing her thoughts about her death, and it has since gone viral.

“It’s a strange thing to realize and accept your mortality at 26 years young. It’s just one of those things you ignore,” she wrote in her note, which was called, “Note Before I Die.” “The days tick by and you just expect they will keep on coming; Until the unexpected happens. I always imagined myself growing old, wrinkled and grey – most likely caused by the beautiful family (lots of kiddies) I planned on building with the love of my life. I want that so bad it hurts.”

Her brother Dean said Holly’s family was stunned by her diagnosis.

“She embodied good health,” he said. “As a dietitian, she ate all the right foods, she exercised regularly and didn’t drink much alcohol. But that’s the thing about cancer… it’s non-discriminatory.”

Though her prognosis of stage 4 cancer was grim, Dean said that Holly never let it get to her.

“She didn’t let it get the best of her,” he said. “Despite the immense pain she was in, there was always something she looked forward to… throughout the whole ordeal, she was just so tough and resilient.”

“That’s the thing about life; It is fragile, precious and unpredictable and each day is a gift, not a given right,” Holly continued in her note. “I’m 27 now. I don’t want to go. I love my life. I am happy… I owe that to my loved ones. But the control is out of my hands.”

Dean asked his sister weeks before she died if she had any final wishes.

“She happily replied, ‘No. I was going to live a simple life. I didn’t have big plans. I just wanted to live happily,'” Dean recalled. “Those were her exact words because I recorded the conversation so I could listen to her voice afterward.”

The main piece of advice Holly had in her note was to appreciate life.

“You might have got caught in bad traffic today, or had a bad sleep because your beautiful babies kept you awake, or your hairdresser cut your hair too short,” she wrote. “Your new fake nails might have got a chip, your boobs are too small, or you have cellulite on your arse and your belly is wobbling.”

“Let all that shit go… I swear you will not be thinking of those things when it is your turn to go,” Holly continued. “It is all SO insignificant when you look at life as a whole. I’m watching my body waste away right before my eyes with nothing I can do about it and all I wish for now is that I could have just one more Birthday or Christmas with my family, or just one more day with my partner and dog. Just one more.”

Holly’s plea to not sweat the small stuff in life is definitely advice we can all follow! Please join us in saying a prayer for her family!

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