The Legend - A Gilmore Girls Fan Fiction

Thank You for Reading!!

To all of my WONDERFUL readers,

Once again, I want to thank you all for your continued love, support, and dedication to this story, and its original characters – especially the TRUE legend of the story, Poppy!

Many of you knew, but most of you didn't – that Poppy was created in tribute to my little sister, Sarah, who was six years younger than me. Sarah was the most beautiful, down to earth, genuinely lovable, caring person I've ever met. She had a way about her that could make anyone and everyone laugh, feel comfortable and welcomed, and feel like you were the only person in the world that mattered to her at any given moment.

At twelve years old, she became an aunt for the first time when my oldest niece was born. She absolutely loved it! She's always loved kids, always wanted kids, and finally had her own son, Landon, four years ago, when she was 24.

In April of 2016, after more than a year of symptoms, she was finally diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma, or Bile Duct cancer – a VERY rare form of cancer, especially in someone her age – and there was almost no success rate for anyone living past five years; and she was already found at stage 4 by the time it had progressed, so she wasn't a candidate for surgery. She also found out at the same time that she had Liver cancer. By the time of diagnosis, between the two cancers, it had already spread to her bile duct, liver, shoulder, spine, and several lymph nodes.

If you knew Sarah, which I know most, if not all of you didn't, but she was SO strong. Such a strong person in personality, toughness, determination, and fight. She was NOT going to let this cancer beat her. She had a son to live for, and a family, and as ironic as it may sound, I've never seen someone filled with as much life, before sickness and during, than Sarah.

She was a part of study for a period of time with MD Anderson in Texas – flying back and forth on private planes donated through Angel Flight Central (an amazing company where Pilots volunteer their planes and their time to help patients get back and forth to doctor appointments) which was working beautifully – until it wasn't. Eventually, she was booted from the study, and there was nothing more they could do, other than try to make her comfortable in her remaining time.

One day I got a phone call from my dad, telling me that Sarah's liver was shutting down, and that she was on hospice – but they weren't letting her know that, because they didn't want her to stop fighting, all the way down to the very end. She didn't make it past that weekend. Early Saturday morning I woke up feeling terrible – before my alarm – and I was just sad for no real explanation of a reason. My dad called me about ten minutes later to tell me Sarah had gone.

I'm sorry, I know this got dark real quick, so if you're still with me, please know how much I appreciate it. Writing Poppy has be the most therapeutic thing that's gotten me through Sarah's death, and I appreciate you all letting me share a little bit of her with you.

I also want to make it EXTREMELY clear that the study Poppy was a part of does not exist, that's why I didn't give it a name, or go into any detail.

The chances of survival are as follows:

The 5-year survival rate for people with early-stage extrahepatic bile duct cancer is 30%.

If the cancer has spread to only the regional lymph nodes, the 5-year survival rate is 24%.

If the cancer has spread to a distant part of the body, the 5-year survival rate is 2%.

And that is if it was caught EARLY.

Sarah's was not caught early, and neither was Poppy's. I initially created Poppy with the intention of knowing the odds of her chances for survival, and so I was planning to use her death as part of a downward spiral for Finn, but I couldn't do it. Much like Sarah, I fell in love with Poppy's personality, and I fell in love with her character. No matter how the story turned out, I couldn't bring myself to do it, I just didn't have it in me. Finn loved her, Emma loved her, I loved her – even though cancer doesn't care about any of that, and seems to always take those who seem the least deserving of it – my human emotions took over and I just couldn't bear to lose my sister twice, and Poppy = Sarah to me.

I had the idea to create a study kind of at last minute, trying to figure out how I would be able to realistically dig myself out of the hole I created for her, and that's when it hit me.

My nephew is the sweetest, most amazing little boy in the world, and has so much of his mom's heart in him, and looks just like her. He will be too young to remember his mom – she died when he was a little over 2 and a half, so he will rely on our stories that we share with him about his mom – and even though he will probably never see this, I still wanted to write a story about his mom that he would be proud of.

Anyway, I'm just rambling now, but I thank you SO, so much for reading, and loving, and being as much a part of this story as I have been. It was my readers who made it worth writing, and I appreciate all of the support you've given me throughout the years. This story is now over. Again, I don't know if there will be a sequel – maybe eventually, but I'm not making any promises. Thank you all so much for making this a successful fan-fiction. Love you all!

Ashley❤️❤️

Once again, don't forget to check out Crimson Sun, (my original), as well as my other Gilmore Girl stories The Aftermath (Rogan) and Ready for Anything? (Finn Fiction) which are currently unfinished (I promise they're not abandoned, I just haven't written in them for a while).  Also coming out real soon, a new 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) fan-fiction I've been writing with my lovely friend, Jodie: RoseLoren33Jodie.  It's called Sounds Good, Feels Good. We will be publishing very soon, and we decided on putting it under my account.   Also, if you haven't already, you need to check out her Gilmore Girls stories in the meantime, as well as her original!! ❤️