In April this year, Connie Johnson, 37, decided to stop all cancer treatment and chemotherapy.
After undergoing more than 10 years of treatment—including a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation—her body was finally telling her “no more.”
She was determined to spend “quality time” with her young family—including her sons, Willoughby and Hamilton—in her final few months.
Yesterday, she had her last “village hurrah” in front of 1,400 medical graduates, prompting her brother, actor Samuel Johnson, to post an emotional tribute to his younger sister as she nears the end of her journey.
“I had to wheel her offstage and into the wings, for the last time, and as soon as we were out of sight, we both buckled,” he wrote on the Love Your Sister Facebook page.
“The cancer buckled her. I don’t know what the f*** got me, but I crumpled something shocking. The weight of everything since Connie’s diagnosis just came down at once. All of it.”
He then shared a heartbreaking message to his sister, who he called “Little Miss Connie Cottonsocks.”
LISTEN: How Samuel Johnson lives with so much sadness and spends his time being there for others dealing with cancer.
“Thanks for showing me that life is what we make it to be. Thanks for teaching me that now can still be awesome, even when you’ve so nearly run out of now and have no more real awesome left,” he wrote.
“I wish I could soften your pain, or lessen your fear, or give you something tangible, but tangible clearly isn’t in season.”
"I'm proud to walk you to the hardest part of the road. The end. The only part of the road in your life that must sadly be travelled alone. Chin up please, amidst the growing dark, my girl.
"Stand big and tall, dear sister, for you have lived a life to be proud of. You've loved well, and you've been loved well which is all that really matters in the end, I suspect."
"I won't finish with 'I love you,' though, of course, I do. I'll finish with a simple thanks. Thanks for holding my hand along the way.
"It's been a stunning f***ig ride. I want another turn, for we've spent our lives taking turns, but cancer is greedier and stronger than us. For now."