Shock and surprise overcame me. So soon, so abrupt. Just a month ago, he announced he would retreat for a while to continue his struggle for life. He promised to return to Parliament in Autumn. But he lost that fight... Another victim of cancer-- that cruel, blind and crippling, crippling illness...
My thoughts went to his family, his wife, who is of Chinese descent. I didn't know him personally, but his energy, his smile, his being "Just Jack", his politics, and the clean way he conducted it, appealed to me, and appealed to so many millions of Canadians.
And there was the cancer that connected me to him even more. Despite his illness, he had faith in life. He campaigned hard, he believed in and stood for change and hope and optimism. He led his party to an unprecedented victory with a belief greater social justice and equality in Canada.
And all that ended. A cancer of unknown origin took that all away. I can only imagine what he and his family went through during the treatment... The hard prayers, the elevated hopes, the consuming fears, and the pain of realising at one point there is nothing more that can be done...
Even so, despite his own pain and suffering, in his last letter to Canadians, he wrote:
"To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer."
Though i never met him, never spoke to him, and can hardly do justice to all the things he has done and said for people around him, for this country, to me he was a courageous person, with conviction and determiation till the very end.
Rest in peace, Mr Layton...
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