Writing about a child who is going to pass away

This is the second time I wrote an article about a dying child and the child passed away before it hit the newsstands. I find it an honor to write about a child who is dying, but there is something different about it when you know it really was their last days. I did not get to meet Megan Kasmar personally. I remember her as a young child at church and at school, but I did not get to talk with her or get to know her at all. I was able to sit down with friends less than a week before she passed away though. She was quite some kid. Quite a lesson to us all. She was worried about everyone else even when she was dying. She just wanted to be a normal teen. She wanted to hang with her friends and have fun and hear about their drama. She was able to have a date in the hospital. She had liked a boy for a very long time. He wrote her a song and he came in and sang it to her. Her friends brought in a dress and fixed her up. They put make up on her and put pink blankets around the bed and let her have that date before she passed away. What amazing friends! What an amazing girl. My favorite quote she always said to her friends was that she would love them even after forever. that is pretty clever! Who hasnt participated in the I love you more game. I think that one would win every time. Well this is for Megan! It was nice to write about you days before you passed away. It was nice to get to you know your friends in the present tense. We had to change it to the past, but it was nice to hear it in the present!