What can be scarier than death? Maybe living a life without any purpose or not doing anything good to the world with an excuse of being unable. Understanding this at a very early age is not less than living a meaningful life. It’s a life of a little girl- Claire Wineland.
It’s a life of a girl who outlived all her illness and challenges and becomes what she really wanted to. It’s a story of a girl who was dying her entire life and yet she lived a proud and meaningful life.
Many of you might already know her, but we didn’t. We didn’t know her, I never even heard her name just a couple weeks back. But one of you guys recommended her and wanted us to know more about her life. And so we did. While knowing about her life, we felt like her 21 years has more meaning than 80 years of an ordinary man. We binge-watched all her videos available on youtube in one night and felt so inspired.
And we believe there are so many people who are suffering challenges and being a subject of pity need to know the story of Claire Wineland.
Claire Lucia Wineland was born on April 10, 1997, in Austin, Texas, US, and was immediately diagnosed with a disease called Cystic Fibrosis or CF with an average life expectancy of just 10 years.
CF is a genetic disease that causes an overload of mucus to accumulate in your body and slowly causes organs to malfunction and fail and especially causes frequent lung infections. It is a very high-maintenance disease that requires utmost care of yourself.
Claire lived all her life with this disease. The majority of her life was spent in hospitals. She never lived a normal life. Her daily routine was taking care of herself, starting from nebulizers and then medications, having pills, checking blood sugar, loading up insulins, treatments, breathing & working out, and then another set of pills and weekly or monthly surgeries. Her quarter of life was spent this way.
She herself said, “As a teenager living with CF is hard, it’s painful, all your will is running through taking care of yourself”. But the good thing is, She was much bigger than her illness. She kept giving meaning to her life. She lived her life in any way. She also appeared in The Music Man at age four.
She said that there was no role model with challenges like her and giving good to the world. But at the age of 11, she drove some inspiration from Stephen Hawking with similar complications but has done tremendous work for humanity.
She had incredible support from her parents. Sometimes they had to take a long leave from their full-time job to stay with her. To spend some memorable time with their daughter.
Other relatives, friends came to visit her daily asking about her conditions and felt sorry for her, but little Claire always wondered why I’m subject of pity? I’m having my time. She even decorated her hospital room because of lots of hospital stays.
She also said, “the hardest part about CF is guilt, the guilt followed your entire life that my parents are sad and heartbroken because of my fault”.
At the age of 13, she went through a routine surgery that led her to near-death afterward. Just 2 days after the surgery she got blood sepsis, which is an infection in the blood. The body temperature went up, oxygen saturation dropped, and then there was a complete lung failure. She ended up in a medically induced coma for 3 weeks.
After the ventilator, she also had been in an oscillator, and then there was a history that no one with a disease like Cystic Fibrosis has ever survived this and successfully came out of this.
She said, “I was like, I’m dying. But it’s fine. I’m prepared for this my entire life. I knew this is gonna happen”.
But yet she survived the terror of being this close to death. She said in her documentary, “After I came out of this, I was mad at myself for being scared. I already knew this was coming. After terror left, I was in grief that how much potential there was in me and how much of that I didn’t utilize. It wasn’t like, god please save, I don’t wanna die. It was that there is so much human being is capable of doing, and I won’t be able to do that.”
She also had incredible support from her parents, friends, online community, and loved ones. It was the point when she realized that the support she received isn’t available for everyone facing CF.
Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that requires lots of hospital stays and kept you isolated from everyone else. Parents with a child having a CF have to take a long break from their occupations to watch their own child die. How hard it must be for them to leave the source of income that supports their living, rents, needs.
All the money that has been raised for CF patients is spent only to find the cure, not to support the families suffering due to this.
And hence, Claire Wineland at the age of 13 with the support of the parents found the Claire’s Place Foundation, a non-profit organization to provide support to such families. She found this organization at her weakest point of life.
She never looked back again. She became a public speaker, a CF activist, a TEDx speaker, and social media personality. She started her own Youtube channel sharing her wisdom. Every single video she put on her channel is a bouquet of inspirations, talking about her illness and how to deal with it. More and more people around the world started connecting with her. Every day new opportunities popped up. She became an advocate for those living with terminal illnesses.
She helped a lot of families having CF children and are suffering a lot from this illness.
She also had a hidden talent for singing and writing. She herself wrote a song at the age of 15 and sang in her own angelic voice. The song is called- ‘Galaxies’. Here’s the little glimpse from the song- ‘And I’m broken but I’m fixable and that’s the worst kind ’cause it means that the fault is on me.’
She always said, “me being sick can’t determine the quality of my life”, “we should change the way we treat sick people, we should stop pitying them and we start empowering them. If you pity someone who is sick, you are snatching their power.”
Therefore, she kept empowering other people’s lives through her foundation and her life. The cure to illness isn’t just about fixing yourself or being healthy, it’s about fixing the way you view your part in society. She said, “health and money don’t mean everything unless you’re actually doing something with it for the betterment of the world.”
In 2016, Claire also get featured on the CW network series- ‘My Last Days’.
Meanwhile, her life expectancy was moved from 10 years to 13 years and then from 13 to 16 and then 19. In between all these years, she lived her life the way she wanted to, despite never knowing that will she ever able to celebrate her next birthday or not.
In one of her TEDx talks, she said, “I was at the Thai restaurant when I was 18 and I was sitting with all my loved ones, we were having our time, everyone was laughing and enjoying and I realized something, that I became the person that little me would have been inspired by.”
Claire always heard that there will come a time in her life when she won’t be able to do anything. Over time her lung function was also kept on decreasing from 50% to 40% and then 35%, 25%.
In 2018 she had to go for another lung transplant. She posted a video on YouTube asking for a little help and how her lung replacement needs tons of money. She cried and felt embarrassed while asking for help. She said, “I don’t care if I get new lungs or be healthy, obviously I do but I just want to be capable enough to do something to give to the world.”
And the response she got from all around the world within 3 months was something extraordinary. People donated to her as she was her own daughter.
On August 26, 2018, the day came when she had a lung transplant. The surgery happened and went good. But,
Afterward, she had another complication. It was the stroke. Though she always came out beating the odds before, this time it wasn’t like that.
Her mother, Melissa Nordquist Yeager said in her documentary, “Her father and I were in the room with her. And we held her and said our good-byes.”
She passed away quietly on September 2, 2018, at the age of 21.
Her wisdom became ageless. A girl who went over 35 surgeries her entire life, left us with a great message- ‘How to live a meaningful life.’ She bathed the darkness of the world with her shine and light. She left all of us with some hopes, courage, determination, passion, love & purpose. Just think of all the people who behave differently from now on because of her impact.
It’s the year 2021, it’s been 10 years since she founded Claire’s Place Foundation. Till now it has raised over one million dollars to support families affected by Cystic Fibrosis and has a clear vision to continue to keep Claire’s legacy alive forever.
In 2019, a movie- Five feet Apart was also made, inspired by Claire’s life story. She was honored with various awards like Fox teen choice award honoree in 2015, 17 Power Teens by seventeen magazines in 2016.
And, YouTube Originals also released a Claire documentary, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Nick Reed & Ryan Azevedo.
So, It’s a journey of a little girl who lived her life not longer but bigger, bigger enough to impact every human being on this planet facing unimaginable circumstances. The first step to peace is to let go of what you can not control. ‘But living a life that we are proud of, is something we can actually control’— Claire Wineland
Know who you truly are and what you are capable of. Wanting something for your betterment of life and being healthy is different than wanting something to do something good out of your better life. This is what I’ve learned from her.
Rest In Peace Claire Wineland, you brave girl. You’ll be missed- ‘Forever’
Sources-
Do let us know about the Unsung heroes you know that are doing or did tremendous work for the betterment of society. We’ll be glad to do more research about them and will write a tribute dedicated to them.
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View Comments
what a beautiful heartfelt story Ritish about Claire's like. I applaud her and so great you highlighted this story.. We have a few friends that are seeing this through successfully and raising awareness is key. ❣️💖💖👏👏👏👏👏
She was surely amazing. I felt deeply inspired by her story, so thought to share with you all.
Thankyou Cindy for your supportive words.
Truly❣️❣️❤️
💜 Pain and Suffering Leading to "Death" via Suicide EveryOne; it's Crystal Clear Clarity that Death is a Release NOT!!! a NEGATIVE!!! but We Do Lose The EXPERIENCE!!! of Life
...💛💚💙...
Yes.
Hope you felt as inspired as me with her story.
💜 Just ordered pizza; now impatient for its delivery in LockDown
... 💛💚💙...
Good to see
You are having your time. Just eat it.
Such an emotional story of Claire. How painful it's to live a life knowing that your end can come at any moment. Such an inspiring girl! Hats off to Claire.
She lived a meaningful life.
I suggest you to watch her YouTube channel. Her every video is a source of inspiration.
Very powerful & meaningful story to inspire everyone. 👌👌👌
She was the brightest light that burned the fastest. But she outlived her illness and did a great things with her bigger life.
Such a inspiration the girl is ❤❤❤
Thanks for this wonderful introduction to her, she lived a life which most of us just waste by sulking and crying over fate !!!, loved reading about her, and wherever she is, she continues to enlighten many lives through her foundation
Yes, she lived a life more than most of the people. Her wisdom is ageless.
And I'm glad you have the same thoughts.
I suggest to watch her YouTube videos, you'll feel more inspired.
Thank you for sharing this story. I will pass it on to my Nephew who has three children with the condition. Heartbreaking for ALL. But lives to be lived FULLY, Blessings on your WAY..
I'm so glad that we are able to share those stories that can inspire people going through the same.
I'm sure they'll do great things in life. Much love to them.
Thankyou Faye, feeling good to have your blessings. Have a great day.
Thank you for sharing Claire’s inspiring life story. Many complain of little challenges and inconvenience in this world nor realizing so many are suffering out there yet live lives of gratefulness , purpose and giving. Thanks.
Absolutely, as she would say- wanting something for betterment of life is different from wanting something to do good from your better life.
She is truly an inspiration for the all the people especially those who are thinking to give up there life.
Thankyou for visiting.
This is a beautiful story and she was blessed to be supported by such giving parents.
Indeed, it's a beautiful story.
She had incredible support from parents, friends and loved ones.
And that was how she realised to start Claire's Place Foundation to help and support those who don't have all these.
You explained this so articulately. ♥️
Thankyou for your kind words.
This is absolutely brilliant! A perfectly weaved story of Claire. An amazingly bold young lady she was.
I'm so so grateful to you people for considering my suggestion and I'm glad that I found the right people to share it with!
I was sure that people will get inspired from her, as I had.!
Thank you again!
Looking forward to more such posts! 😃
Glad you recommend her. She was truly an amazing person I’ve ever seen.
(We’ve also send you the personal Email two days back to your mailing address)
Thankyou. Keep reading and suggesting.
Ritish, what an uplifting post about an amazing young girl! Beautiful! <3 Have a great week!
Thank you Cheryl.
Have a great week.
Make you think how small our petty little illnesses are compared to what she faced every hour or every day. And she still kept trying to make the world a better place for others. I am honored to have the chance to read about her life. She had amazing parents to be able to keep the faith in her through everything she and they went through.
That is the thing I liked about her so much. Despite having a terrible disease she did something great for the world and for herself. She lived bigger. She's full of life.
And I'm so glad that I got to know about her because of our Unsung heroes series.
A life well-lived. An inspiration to the rest of us.
Definitely.
Thanks so much for sharing this story. I haven't heard of Claire either, before this. There are definitely some people on this planet that stand out, made of a much brighter color in a sea of gray. I think it's easy to say, though, that it's much better to try to do good in the world, no matter what, instead of feeling sorry for yourself, especially if we haven't been in any of those challenging circumstances. I think the spirit is probably willing, as they say (to be brave, to be bigger than what's happening) but the flesh is weak, you know? People are fragile beings and I think "heroes" are rare. Claire obviously was made of different cloth, though, and was lucky to have the total support of her family. Regardless of my comments on the general state of humanity (including myself, I'm sure!) Claire's story is inspiring and uplifting, and she did make a difference in her short time here. :)
Stories like these left a great impact on how we look at ourselves. We are so grateful that our readers our recommending these souls to us, otherwise we never know and realize how much potential we all have as a human being, if we are willing to go into self analysis.
Though, I agree humans are indeed fragile. But when going gets tough, people like her shows the light that we can follow even in dark and empty void.
And Thank-you so much for sharing your words here, Seliza.
I had heard abou Claire but I didn't know much about her before I read this post. Reading about her life made me so emotional that I almost started crying. I'm so happy that she inspired so many people and kept fighting to make a difference no matter what she faced. I can only hope to one day have as big an impact as her. Truly, thank you so much for sharing her story.
Thank-you so much Simone.
I’m so glad that we are able to spread the stories like this to make a small positive impact.
Claire Wineland and her meaningful left a great message for all the people.
And I’m sure you too have so much potential to do something good, something extraordinary and inspire others with same challenges.
Keep the spirit high.
Oh my, I have tears in my eyes now, had to watch the documentary after reading your post. Thanks for telling us about her
Her documentary is highly recommended. It's a must watch. You'll find a way to the light.
Thank-you for reading. Have a great weekend.
An amazing story. At only 21 she had fulfilled her purpose in life. What a brave and wonderful person. Her life reminds me of those lives that have not been fulfilled. Les Brown says it well;
“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”
That little girl is a big inspiration for us.
And, What a significant lines you shared here.
Thank-you so much for this. ❣