Saturday, October 3, 2009

Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes and she's gone

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden died on September 22. She was 46.

You have no idea who that is, but you've heard of her, kind of. In nursery school, her buddy Julian drew a picture of her and showed it to his father. His father asked what he had drawn. Julian replied, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

You know the rest.

I heard this story sometime in middle school and reacted with some amount of skepticism. Inspired by a picture by John Lennon's kid? No way. Got to be about LSD. Well, and maybe it was, but the drawing was real, and so, it turns out, was the girl.

Lucy Vodden battled lupus, a neuroimmune disease, for 15 years before finally succumbing. By the time she died she was housebound and very sick. Unfortunately, it took a while before she got the correct diagnosis; lupus sufferers can do better if they receive treatment early on.

Full story at www.dailymail.co.uk

Thanks to LupusVoice for passing this along. Here's hoping for happier news next time around.

2 comments:

Jannie Funster said...

She must've been in a dark dark place, poor woman.

cinderkeys said...

I know. She worked to raise awareness for lupus, and for the importance of early detection. That had to be satisfying. But at the same time, I don't think pain and early death is the path any of us would choose.