Sad story.


I remember seeing this movie on tv when I was about 14 or 15, some years after it was made. I was horrified at the decision of this woman to die rather than have her leg amputated. The whole movie was very disturbing and sad to me. I still cannot comprehend her thinking. I did not remember the connection with the John Denver song, which is otherwise beautiful. Anyway, naturally, knowing now that the story is based on a true experience, I can understand a bit more what it was about, but still, it just seems like such a sad waste of a life.

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I could never understand that decision either. If she had her leg amputated and the cancer removed she could of gotten a prothesis to walk. She would still be alive and see her daughter grow up.

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If she had let the doctors amputate her leg, chances are she would've died 5 years later anyway & would've had to live the last 5 years of her life with only one leg. I'm not a fan of cancer detection tests because I don't see what good it does to know you have a disease that is going to kill you sooner or later. In fact, I would think it would just ruin your remaining time

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Far be it from me to second-guess the intentions of a cancer patient, but I appreciate the fact that Kate wasn't particularly likable – at least not to me. The relationship with Sam was complex and tumultuous, from from the Hallmark Hall of Fame school of weepie dramas. That's what makes this film so much more believable.

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You have to remember she was just a kid. 19 when diagnosed. A lot of older people don't handle something like that well. Plus there were financial strains of a child & mounting medical expenses

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I watched this movie when I was a kid and I loved it. But watching it again on you tube...as a grown woman and a mother, I can't help but think how selfish...has she had the amputation, her daughter would have had a mother.

Ted Kennnedys son had the same cancer...had the amputation and is still alive today.








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Terry Fox also had the same type of cancer, but, although he went through with the amputation, it did not prevent him from dying. And if you read these threads, you will find some posts from someone who knew Lynn Helton, & said that she was a very good, loving mother, & it was a very difficult decision for her to choose.



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You don't know what ELSE is happening in her life.

Sometimes life is so unbearable -think of all the people who commit suicide. Just sayin'

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I think people cannot forget this TV movie because it was so different, it showed a unique woman not even out of her teens who made her own decisions for her own reasons. She was very independent plus she lived out in the boonies which made her unique too -- a city girl probably would have made a different decision.

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Well she is 19, newly married, and its 1965. There is no guarantee that removing the leg would stop the cancer and what surgery, radiation and chemo looked like in the 60's I understand her choice. Unless you have walked a mile in her shoes with cancer in your leg and in pain, I think its best to not have a negative opinion about her choice.

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Well she is 19, newly married, and its 1965.


Actually, it was around 1969/70. Lynn Helton died in 1971 at age 20.




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