Marilyn Brandenburg faces death with gratitude for family and friends.

Marilyn Brandenburg’s many friends know she is generous with her time, love and attention.

Now, stricken with terminal cancer and facing death, Brandenburg makes a gift to the community-at-large of wisdom gleaned from her difficult circumstances.

“One of the things I would like to say to people like me was told me by a doctor,” Brandenburg said. “Lung cancer is rarely found in a curable stage except by accident. It doesn’t show up on x-rays. Often the only way to detect the disease in a curable stage is through a low-dose CT scan.”

After radiation and five rounds of chemotherapy, her brain cancer is currently inactive, allowing Brandenburg time to enjoy family and friends.

Her daughter Linda has visited from Alaska, and her son Jeff has moved from Seattle to Bainbridge.

“I always told my children that if I were hit by a truck not to be sorry because I’ve had a great life,” she said. “I’ve had a great, long life. But it’s a gift of the cancer to have time to have a relationship with my children. We are having conversation we otherwise never would have had.”

Brandenburg’s quality of life is also enhanced by a web site at thestatus.com, where friends and family can check her current condition and the best time to call or visit.

Set up and maintained by her son, the web site lets visitors post encouraging notes, sign a guest book, and even look through an album of Brandenburg’s favorite photographs.

Thestatus.com was first created by Alaskan Mark Pearson for an ill family member. Sponsored by hospitals and medical providers, the service is free to their patients, who use a password to keep sites confidential.

Brandenburg says the Seattle Cancer and Treatment Center, a facility offering a combination of naturopathic and traditional Western medicine, has made treatment far less stressful than it might have been.

“I take acupuncture with my chemo,” she quipped.

Her message

Brandenburg wants to alert people who, like herself, consider themselves out of danger once they give up smoking; Brandenburg quit 16 years ago.

“I felt fine until I woke up one morning short of breath,” she said. Two months of tests ruled out maladies from pneumonia to congestive heart failure. It was only when Brandenburg went to Poulsbo’s Inhealth Imaging for a low-dose spiral CT scan that the test revealed cancer that had spread to lymph glands, brain, liver, spine and hip.

“I have to say that when I experienced the diagnosis I was sort of stunned,” she said. “I was standing outside myself.”

But instead of retreating in shock, she left on a two-week trip to France – which didn’t surprise the wide circle of friends familiar with the outgoing woman’s joie de vivre.

Brandenburg taught at Wilkes and Commodore schools for 24 years. A member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, she trained to be a deacon – clergy who act as liaison between laity and church. It was a natural place to exercise her talents and spiritual bent, especially in her ministry at Purdy, the women’s prison.

She has been local secretary for Cursillo, a non-denominational Christian group that sponsors retreats to deepen spiritual experience.

“Marilyn excels in so many areas that it is difficult to focus on any one at the risk of excluding others,” said Darla Berg, a friend for many years. “She has somehow managed to combine a gifted jazz singer’s voice, Mensa member intelligence, a caring school teacher’s career, a scandalously funny sense of humor, a devoted parent’s heart and a wonderful capacity for friendship into one highly spiritual woman.

“She is, quite literally, the most remarkable person I have ever known.”

Brandenburg says it is her life-long faith that sustains her.

“I’m a Franciscan, and so I live under a rule of life that requires me to spend time in prayer and study,” she said. “The discipline has created a place where I feel close to God.”

More than 1,200 “guests” have visited Brandenburg’s web page during the month the site has been up and running. Many want to be helpful, but Brandenburg says what she chiefly needs, for the moment, are cards and notes.

Prayers are good, too.

“I’m very uplifted by prayers,” she said. “There are lots of people praying for me.”