A stranger could not tell she was in pain.

A stranger could not tell she was ill.

A stranger could not tell Johnie Maureen was suffering from cancer.

“She would never complain… she never complained,” Maureen’s daughter Monica Bierut of West Chicago repeated to herself. She looked at the visitor with pain in her eyes from the moment the visitor came into her house. “She acted like there was nothing wrong.”

Cervical cancer hit Maureen first, but she wasn’t worried in the least. Maureen was determined to beat it. And she did.

Lymphoma was second.

It hit her harder, but Maureen did not let it change her attitude. She continued to tell her children and family that she would get through it, Bierut told the visitor.

“‘I’m gonna be alright. Don’t you kids worry, I’m gonna be okay,’” Bierut repeated what her mother said.  “She was so tough… so tough.”

Maureen continued to fight. But slowly, the cancer spread to her bladder.

“That’s what made her so, so sick. Her little frail body couldn’t take it anymore,” Bierut, almost in tears, said.

The doctors could only do one thing; Remove part of Maureen’s colon and bladder.

“She refused,” Bierut said with sadness in her voice. “And so, it was slow.”

The cancer overtook Maureen.

She could no longer walk.

She could barely move.

She was on constant pain medicine. Yet, Maureen fought the cancer as best as she could.

Maureen’s daughters would help her fight by taking her mind off the illness. Her daughters would try their best to make Maureen as happy as possible.

“She always wanted her hair fixed and I would always go fix her hair everyday to make her feel as beautiful as she was,” Bierut smiled at the memory. “My sister would have one of her friends come over and give her a pedicure and a manicure because she had beautiful hands and nails.”

Maureen stayed joyful throughout the pain, but in the end, Maureen could no longer fight.

“She was always tough for us, for her kids,” Bierut paused and cried. “ But it got her… it got her.”

On Maureen’s last day, all of her loved ones stood beside her. Her daughters, her nieces, nephews, everyone. Everyone stood next to Maureen as she took her last breath.

“The whole family was there. And we were just in her bedroom all around her, waiting for her heart to stop,” said Bierut. “We would talk to her and tell her how much we loved her. We just… waiting, waiting for God to take her.”

Bierut wiped tears from her eyes. The visitor stood up and hugged Bierut.

“She was a good mama,” Bierut whispered to the visitor in tears, “A good mama.”

Maureen never let her illness take away her joy. She stayed happy throughout her fight.

Maureen fought until the end.