Have you ever googled your name? It is super silly right. I only did it because I saw that some people find my blog by googling my name. I was curious what comes up. I know there are probaly many Andrea Collin’s. Actually, there are 491 to be exact. {www.howmanyofme.com} There is an artist in Pittsburgh with my name. She is my age. She also has 5 children in the age range of my kids (sans Clay). How interesting I thought. There is Andrea Collins the poet. She went to Penn State. There are a few doctors and real estate agents. And one actress. But most significant is Andrea “Andi” Collins. Who died at the age of 16 after a 9 month battle with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Below are some of the words used to describe her.
**We all know and admire Andi Collins as a young woman of outstanding character, intelligence, strength, and beauty. “
(in 2003 the 16 year old Andrea Collins who died of Inflammatory Breast Cancer at a VERY young age after a 9 month battle with the disease}.
I know its just coincidence. I know I have a fairly common name. But still…IBC is even more rare than that. It effects only 1% to 3% of breast cancer. And how rare is it that a 16 year old girl should get breast cancer? Well IBC is that cancer. It is so hard to believe that the 16 year old girl had to face this as well. So Andrea and I shared a name and a rare disease. I pray that God will give me more than 10 months to be with my family.
I am always looking for the interconnectedness of human lives. Believing that we are all related to one another. Cosmic siblings. We all seem to overlap with one another. It helps me to think of the world as a place far less chaotic and random then it most likely is. I often feel that everything has a purpose and was meant to be. All experiences both good and bad are just meant to help us grow and change.
I don’t know why exactly I wanted you to know about the other Andrea Collins. I guess I feel sorry for her and her family…she was 16. Alec is older than that and I can not even imagine what it is like to lose a child. But to experience breast cancer at that age seems so wrong. I feel a lot of empathy for people these days. Somehow my circumstances have made me more aware of the fragility of the human condition. It has made me more concerned about others.