My friend's husband lost his mother to liver cancer during the wee hours of Sunday morning. He had traveled with his family from Ohio to Florida expecting to take his mom home with him so she could spend her last months where she once lived.

Steve never got to take his mom home. She died just days after he landed in Florida. Still, I am confident he won't return to Ohio empty-handed. His positive and healthy perspective on losing his mom will surely keep him company.

I got to see Steve and Kim -- my very best friend whose bouncy ringlets I envied long before I got my own post-chemotherapy curls -- on the same day Steve's mom died. They needed to get away and wanted a distraction for their two small children.

I am honored to have been chosen as my friends' destination -- not only so they could begin to heal from their loss, but because I gained a renewed sense of calm about death and dying during the time we talked and laughed and reminisced.

Steve's mom, 69, died at home in the loving arms of hospice caretakers who offered her round-the-clock care. During her final hours, she received a bath, a back rub, and a massage with body lotion. She sent non-verbal messages to her family members indicating she wished to be alone and once she had convinced everyone to head for bed, she took her final breaths. She died facing a wall, in contrast to her usual position in which she faced the door, as if to welcome all visitors. Her final resting pose was perhaps her way of saying good-bye. Steve sees it this way.

Just moments after Steve's mom was driven away in a funeral home car, Steve saw the clouds part. And then the rain fell. "Mom just figured out how to turn on the water," Steve said.

I don't think I'll ever forget this remark. Or the fact that the rain didn't last for very long on Sunday. The day Steve's mom died was gorgeous, glorious, and sunny.

There's so much more we talked about -- like the convertible Steve's mom drove and how he thought about placing her urn, her photo, and a scarf in the seat and taking his mom for one last spin before turning the car in -- and we passed the day in a celebratory manner. This, I think, is exactly what Steve's mom would have wanted.

On May 16, Sheryl Crow, one of our favorite celebrity breast cancer survivors, gave her first public performance since announcing her breast cancer diagnosis, surgery and radiation treatment. She was hired by a new broadcast network to sing A Change Would Do You Good -- a theme song for one of their new television series. When Crow stumbled through the lyrics of Soak Up the Sun, she joked about it saying, "I knew the words last night. I think the radiation went to my brain." But she is back, and that is all that matters.

On May 19, she performed with Billy Joel, Lenny Kravtiz, Russell Crowe and Will Ferrell at Sting's Rainforest Foundation Fund Benefit Concert in New York. Revlon sponsored what the Guinness Book of World Records has deemed to be the biggest environmental fundraising event in the world. The Empire State Building glowed environmental green as a tribute to the fundraising efforts to save rainforests from destruction. We have posted about rainforest plants with the potential to help treat or cure cancer -- here and here. But, we may never benefit from the healing plants found and plants yet to be discovered, if the rainforest continues to be destroyed by the greed of illegal logging. Not only is Crow back -- she is making a difference -- and having a great time doing it because -- to quote her, all I wanna to do is have some fun. We are glad she has returned to performing her music and celebrating her cancer survivorship.

Is there a plant growing deep in the heart of the Borneo rainforest that can cure cancer? According to the WWF, plants with the potential to help treat or cure cancer have been found there. But, we may never benefit from the healing plants found and plants yet to be discovered, because the rainforest is being destroyed by the greed of illegal logging.

In a report called Biodiscoveries, Borneo's Botanical Secret, scientists are currently testing samples in the hope of developing drugs that could treat cancer. For example, an Australian pharmaceutical company is studying a promising anti-cancer substance from a shrub found in the rainforest. A compound present in the plant Aglaia leptantha has been found to effectively kill 20 kinds of human cancer cells in laboratory tests, including those that cause brain and breast cancer, and melanoma. Right now, it's a race to see how much of the rainforest can be saved from those who can only see the immediate profit in logging and lumber sales. Honest to goodness, can I suggest cob construction? Once the rainforests are gone, they are gone. So too, the healing secrets that grow there.