My friend Ashlie has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

On Friday she goes into surgery. Saying she is scared would be an understatement. She has reached out on Facebook to her friends for their prayers and good thoughts. And the responses have been wonderful.

I have been praying for her and wishing her healing thoughts. I’ve also been pondering how this could be.

This is one of those great injustices in our world. When bad things happen to good people doesn’t even cover it.

This is a good woman. A good woman with an amazing heart.

This is a young woman at 35. This is a woman who has a 3 year old son and a wonderful husband.

This is a woman whose chosen profession is to capture beautiful moments and people’s smiles on film so that they can have those moments forever.

This is a woman whose own smile can light up a room, not only because she is beautiful but because her smiles are genuine.

This is a woman who is truly genuine and probably has no idea how very rare that is in our world.

This is a woman who, as a freshman in college, survived being my roommate for an entire year. And during that time, when she was displeased with me or someone else, she never raised her voice or acted ugly to me or anyone else.

This is a woman who is a good friend, who is always ready to offer encouragement and a kind word. She is one of those amazing people who points out your positive attributes not to get you to like her but rather because that is how she sees you and she wants you to see the good in yourself.

This is a woman who is close to her family. And she understands what family means.

This is a woman who wants nothing more than to have more children and is terrified that chemotherapy will take that opportunity away from her.

This is a woman who is still grieving the loss from a miscarriage not but a few months ago.

This is a woman who didn’t back down when her doctors told her the lump in her breast was probably nothing, who trusted her instinct and pushed until someone finally listened to her.

This is a woman who, despite her fear, still sees the positive in all of this. And she is grateful for things like the fact that the cancer is still in Stage 1, that they don’t think the cancer has spread, and that the genetic testing came back negative.

This is a woman who is the epitome of a good person. So it is not fair at all that she has to go through this.

I know life isn’t fair. Unfortunately, I realize that every day. But this really drives home exactly how unfair it can be.

I am grateful, though, that Ashlie has a lot of things on her side. She has her faith. She has her family. She has motivation. She has early detection. She has strength. She has karma.

And if friends that love her and have faith in her and are praying for her have anything at all to do with it, then she is in good shape.

Because we do love her so much.