My favorite blog is called "My Cancer."

It's written by Leroy Sievers, a brave and talented journalist who covered more than a dozen wars.

A few years ago, Sievers, who was born in 1955, was diagnosed with cancer. He began blogging about dealing with the disease on NPR's Web site. You can read it here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/mycancer/

Sievers died over the weekend and, though even he knew this was coming, it's shocking and sad news.

No one close to me has ever had cancer, but reading Sievers' blog really helped me understand (at least a little) what that's like.

I was captivated with Ted Kopel's documentary on Leroy (last year?) and how he overcame the odds and lived a lot longer than they figured he would.

But this still sucks.

I've lost both of my parents to Cancer and from time to time I'd check in to his blog...but usually it would hit too close to home, and I'd end up depressed. The scariest notion is that you just know that the end is near, and there's nothing you can do about it. I imagine writing this blog and doing the reports on NPR gave him a sense of control. Like, "I can't die yet! I'm not done with my reporting!"

Thanks for passing along the news that he passed away this weekend, Sarah. I hadn't heard that and none of the news-sites I visit made any mention of it.

Another great blog about dealing with cancer and life in general is from Abigail Henderson.

www.hopeismymiddlename.blogspot.com