<human>: So the holidays can be an awful time.  Frankly, this year bodes to be the worst so far.  This past Wednesday, my fiance's mother passed away after a 4 year fight with leukemia. Since my estrangement from my own family, she stepped in and became not only a great friend, but more of a mother to me than my own had ever been.

She watched and encouraged me as I started to count calories and went from 175 lb to 140 lbs.  As she got sicker, she still pushed for me to keep running and eating right, "Because some one needs to stay health and take care of the family!".  

The week she passed, just the day before, I pitched to my local paper an article about a local race I was participating in.  The paper accepted, and I was excited. She was in the hospital the next day when I told her, and after a brief bit of excitement for me, was very tired.  Later that night, she passed away.

Frankly, at that point, I wanted to scrap the whole project.  I was pretty sure the paper would understand. But I felt like I was letting her down.  My mother-in-law was not a woman who wanted people to mourn and give up on life, and as she battled leukemia over the years, she buoyed up so many people with her constant positive outlook.

So that's what I'm trying to focus on this holiday season.  The legacy of a woman who taught me to give life my all, and that I can do whatever I set my mind to do.

Even losing those last damn 15 lbs is possible :P    

So if you're interested, I'm linking the article I wrote.  Its not much, but I wrote it while surrounded by my fiance's family, and all the good feelings that is generated by a crowd of people who loved an amazing woman.

Give me a shortened version of the text
<bot>: I love my future mother-in-law and she passed away this week.  The holidays may turn out okay in spite of everything awful life throws at us.