by Greg Wisler
11/27/2014

To the people of Holliston, this letter is to recognize and honor one of your daughters, her name is Emilee Gagnon.  Many of you knew her, but I must tell my story of how I came to know her. 

On September 23, 2013, I was driving home from work from Toledo, Ohio, to Oak Harbor, Ohio, where my wife and I live.  I was on State Route #163 and could see a cyclist in the distance coming towards me. I slowed way down for there was a car coming towards me as well. The other car, the cyclist and my car would have been on the road and passed each other at the same time.  The car heading west slowed down to allow me to continue east, I was going about 10 miles per hour and looked over to my left at the cyclist and could see this person was not in the car lane, but to the right of the white line along the berm and this cyclist was very focused towards heading west. I looked in my rear view mirror after I had passed and could see that the car heading west then hung to the left towards the middle of the road as it passed the cyclist to give plenty of room for the cyclist and it continued heading west.  I continued on my way home.

The next day I picked up the local newspaper the Toledo Blade, and saw that an unidentified cyclist had been hit by a car and then it hit me, that I was one of the last people to see this person on the bike for the cyclist was hit by the next car heading west about 30 seconds to a minute after I had just passed her.  This person I came to know from the net, was your Emilee Gagnon from Holliston, Massachusetts. 

As I read about her and her life I was blown away by this young lady and who she was and what she had accomplished in her short time on this earth.  What a Human Being!  For you who were fortunate to know her, you know better than I what a gift she was to all of us.  For those of you who don’t know her, you owe it to yourself to go online and learn about this amazing courageous young woman.

I began to read about all her accomplishments, Emilee’s scholastic honors at college, she was disciplined in martial arts, and a gifted artist.  I thought to myself what a bright person and accomplished young lady she was.  But when I read about her battle with cancer at age 13 and how she responded in continuing to live her life with the reality of cancer, losing her hair as a teenager and yet she had the strength to be comfortable with herself through this with her friends and classmates at age 13, this to me was amazing.

However, when I learned that she was riding her bike from Holliston to San Francisco to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis for her grandfather, this brought tears to my eyes.  Let alone the fact that it's over 3,000 miles, which is a tremendous goal in and of itself, what really spoke to my heart is that Emilee was not riding to raise money for the cancer fight she had dealt with personally, but for another human being’s needs.  Wow!!!

I think Emilee in the short time she was on this earth has spoken volumes to us, not only here in Ohio, but to all she met, about what life is really all about.  Emilee showed us that it was not only in her words, but in her actions as well, that this life is about living and loving in such a way that we give of ourselves 110 % in that we want the best for others around us.  In Emilee’s life, this is what she was all about, not to be concerned about herself but to get beyond that, and to live her life courageously and boldly with love for other human beings.  I know here in Ohio, there are others besides me, that Emilee’s legacy has touched our hearts, challenged us in our own lives to follow in her footsteps, to be the best version of ourselves.

This Thanksgiving season, I encourage you if you did not know her go online and find out for yourself.  I think that a way for all of us to celebrate this Thanksgiving and a way we can honor this young lady’s life is to break out of our own routines that we all fall into and to be bold like Emilee and love courageously the people in our own lives.  Emilee’s journey was to go to San Francisco, what is ours?  I think Emilee’s message to us on our own journeys is that we all be challenged to move out of our comfort zones and to live and love courageously in this world as Emilee did.   

This Thanksgiving, may we all show our gratitude not only for those blessings in our own lives, but also for the gift of Emilee’s life, by following the lead of this courageous 21 year old Emilee Gagnon, by loving more courageously in our own lives, for then we will pass on to others what Emilee has given to us.

Greg Wisler

Oak Harbor, Ohio