‘Driving Miss Norma’ inspires many

I have been following the journey of Norma, the 90-year-old woman who lost her husband and learned that she had cancer in the same 2-week time span. While that would drive many of us straight to our beds, Norma surprised everyone by saying she wanted to hit the road.

Her family is taking her on a trip around the country, and Norma is having the time of her life. She chose to skip a risky surgery, and cancer treatment that would have left her sick and exhausted, and instead live out her final days on a grand adventure.

Miss Norma, via Driving Miss Norma/Facebook.

When Norma told her doctor of her plans, he responded, “Right on!”

The world agrees, and the Driving Miss Norma Facebook page has gone viral, with thousands of people around the world following her journey.

I love her attitude. And for those who think skipping treatment is “giving up” the only thing Miss Norma has given up is the misery of uncertainty. Yes, the cancer she has will likely kill her. But instead of sitting around and worrying about it, or obsessing over treatments that may offer false hope, Norma is doing exactly what someone with a limited time span should do: experiencing every last drop of life she can, while she can.

We don’t have to wait until we are 90 and have a terminal illness to live like Norma. Sure, we can’t all necessarily hop into an RV and tour the country, but we can start carving out time to focus on what is important to us, instead of what others think is important.