Gabriele Anderson Grunewald has been fighting cancer since 2009.
The professional runner from Minnesota has been actively raising awareness for rare cancers since her initial diagnosis, going so far as to start the Brave Like Gabe foundation to support cancer research and empowerment.
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But now, her journey is coming to an end, and her husband Justin has shared a letter he wrote to her many years ago.
“Dear Gabriele, First, thank you. Thank you so much for showing me what it’s like to be and feel alive. It’s easy to pass through life day to day and punch a time card wishing away the hours. Currently although I don’t always show it, I cherish every second. Whether we are out running, binging on a new Netflix series, or just lying in bed being lazy. Nothing beats the feeling I get when I see your smiling face,” he began the letter.
“I know life is scary and I know we have won the lottery of uncertainty, and it’s not fair, but I still choose our life of uncertainty and at times fear, over any alternative option I could think of. I have so much fun with you and have learned more from having you as my best friend and wife than I learned in the rest of my life combined.”
He continued to describe the immense bravery of his wife, and her ability to smile in the face of adversity.
“I know you have been given the heaviest of tasks in life. The task of being brave despite feeling enormous amounts of fear. The task of smiling when your throat wells up with pain and eyes want to fill with tears, but I don’t think you were chosen by random chance, and again I know that’s not fair but you are so amazing at being you and that’s why I feel [Brave like Gabe] is so special. Because there isn’t a word in the dictionary for what you do or who you are. Brave flails in comparison to what you are to me and to so many people out there facing the simplest and silliest of struggles in day to day life.”
“At the end of the day people won’t remember the PRs run or the teams qualified for but they will remember that hard period in their life where they were losing hope but they found inspiration in a young lady who refuses to give up. I love you.”
Gabriele’s condition began to worsen over the weekend when her liver started to fail.
“It breaks my heart to say but overnight Gabriele’s status worsened with worsening liver function causing confusion. Wanting to do her no harm we have made the difficult decision to move her to comfort cares this afternoon,” Gabriele’s husband Justin wrote on Instagram on Sunday.
“I wanted to let you all know while she is still alive so you can send her one last message here or on her wall or on her phone before she heads up to heaven.”
In 2009, during her final year of university, doctors found an adenoid cystic carcinoma in Gabriele’s salivary glands. By 2010, doctors had found cancer in her thyroid, and she was forced undergo surgery and radioactive-iodine treatment.
Six years on, doctors found a cancerous tumour in Gabriele’s liver, which was surgically removed. One year later, smaller tumours were also located in her liver.
You can support to Brave like Gabe here.