On Sept. 6, 2013, my grandmother, Marcella Rooney, lost her lengthy battle with cancer. It started with breast cancer that eventually spread to her bones and brain. She is, without a doubt, the most influential person in my life.

She taught me that if there’s anything you can do to make someone’s day, you should do it. Whatever it takes to put a smile on someone’s face is worth it. She would go out of her way to make every person she met, whether she knew them or not, feel like they were special and important in their own way, and the way she lit up a room with her beaming smile and infectious personality is incomparable.

About two months ago I brought her to her chemotherapy appointment, and right as I wheeled her into the waiting room one of the nurses walked out, stopped in front of her, bent down and hugged her. Not one of those friendly, hello or goodbye hugs, but a several second, full body “you’re-important-to-me” hugs. I felt as if I had missed something, and right as I was about to ask my grandma why the nurse hugged her, the doctors were ready for her and she was called in. As another nurse took her wheelchair from me and two more walked along each side of her, I could hear her complimenting one nurse’s hair, then asking the other how her daughter was. I no longer needed to ask why the nurse hugged her. She personally touched these people’s lives like she had touched so many others before.

She was one of those people who you feel honored to be a part of their life. She was the kind of person people aspire to be. She was the embodiment of everything good, honest and joyful. Though her life wasn’t easy, it certainly was miraculous to say the least. There are no words to describe how truly grateful I am to have had her in my life and to get the blessing of being in hers.

She spent her life living the “yolo” that people should live.