Lee Shaw inspires women to cherish every breath they are able to take.

Lee is a breast cancer patient who fought the illness for 8 years. She is also my aunt and someone extremely close to me. Seeing her heart beat stopped right in front of my eyes made me think a lot about life and things that matter to me. She told me some really important pointers during my very last days with her. I wasn’t able to ask her my thesis interview questions before she passed away so her daughter Nadia answered most of the questions for her and also talk about her experience of losing her mom.

ZENPLIFICATION:
Can you describe your idea of peace of mind?

NADIA:
Being happy. Not having to worry about stupid things. I used to worry about silly things all the time. Like when I have too much free time, I would feel like I have to work, worry about the meaning of life, worry about things that matter. And make up things in my mind that I really shouldn’t have to worry about. When you over-analyze anything, it just becomes a bigger problem.

ZENPLIFICATION:
What do you think your mom’s idea of peace of mind was?

NADIA:
I don’t know. That’s a good question. She wanted people to care about her. I guess it’s the same reason that I want people to care about me. I go out and make good friends and they care about me. My mom liked to take care of people so people could care about her.

ZENPLIFICATION:
Can you describe a moment of metamorphosis for you?

NADIA:
That’s an easy one. I guess my mom died, and my ex broke up with me, and I had a nervous breakdown. It was just in that moment that I realized that life is too short to waste on people who just don’t care about you. It all just came together because my mom passed away and she was always the one that cared about me and then my ex broke up with me because he can’t handle it. He just didn’t care enough to be there for me. First of all, I had to learn to take care of myself, which I can do and I did. And then, I stopped being so dependent on people.