Here is the test to find out whether your mission on earth is finished...

If you're still alive, it isn't.

~Richard Bach

I found this quote when I was in college. I found it at just the right time. It was found after a friend was killed in a car accident in 2000. I will be talking about this girl and how this quote applies to her, she is not the only person that this applies to, this applies to each and every one of us.

The quote helped me accept her death better, and the girl that was killed, Jolene LaFranco, was a very charismatic girl. She always brought sunshine to a room whenever she walked into it. Even though she had some incidents in her personal life, she never allowed it to interfere with her charisma, she was always able to carry herself through her difficult times, and for this I respected her for it. Through the Alpha Xi pledge program I guided Jolene and six other new pledges through the program, I learned about each and every one of those seven women, and Jolene was no different. After the pledge program was over, I was "Mom" to those seven new sisters.

I was President of Alpha Sigma Theta when Jolene was killed in that car accident. The sorority in general had a hard time accepting the death of a loved one, especially one of our own. Most of the sorority had seen a fraternity go through the same thing a year and a half before, however we never really *got it* until that day, November 17, 2000. It was the day I *truly* understood the extent of responsiblity that came with being President. Being President meant being there for the sisters, assuming the concept that the sorority's grief, the sorority's emotional upheaval, the sorority's shock was more important, more important than my own. This was a challenge for me and my Vice President. Each person had their own grieving process, and some took longer than others, yet through it all, I strived to remain available, it was about the same time I found the quote. I took that quote to heart, reflected on Jolene's life in the short time that I knew her, and I immediately knew that Jolene's mission on Earth was finished. Her mission had been to bring sunshine to each person that surrounded her. She had touched so many people, brought sunshine to so many people. With this, I fully accepted the fact that Jolene was physically gone, but I knew that she will forever be remembered, by all of us, through the lives that she touched.

If you have a friend or a family member that has recently passed, or someone that has passed quite a while back, always remember, they had a mission on Earth, and they completed it. Some may take decades, others may take years. In rare cases, some may take mere hours, days, weeks or months, but think about it, if babies that young were able to touch even one person's life, that is a mission completed.