‘I'm so much more than the bad things that happen to me’

News goes viral on the internet for different reasons, good and bad, but once in a blue moon, a truly beautiful story takes your breath away.

Last Tuesday night, June 8, during auditions for the TV show America’s Got Talent (AGT) featuring its judges, the inimitable Simon Cowell, actress Sofia Vergara, model and TV host Heidi Klum, and TV personality Howie Mandel, a painfully thin but strikingly beautiful 30-year-old woman named Jane Marczewski, who goes by the professional singing name of Nightbirde, came on stage to sing an original composition.

The Ohio native revealed that she had been fighting cancer for the last year, and that the disease had metastasized to her lungs, spine, and liver, which left the judges silent. When Mandel said, “So you’re not okay,” Marczewski replied, “Not in every way…but it’s important that everyone knows that I’m so much more than the bad things that happen to me”—just the first of many such statements that floored the audience that night.

Marczewski proceeded to sing her composition It’s Okay with a lilting, ethereal voice shot through with so much feeling, the judges turned emotional—and the whole theater was silent for a few seconds before exploding into applause. “It’s okay, it’s okay/If you’re lost/We’re all a little lost and it’s all right/It’s all right,” goes the haunting chorus.

“Your voice is stunning,” Cowell said, to which Marczewski retorted, “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy,” leaving Cowell visibly stunned.

In fact, about her prognosis—she said she had been given a grim 2 percent chance of survival—she stated, “Two percent is not zero. Two percent is something.”

Cowell was so overwhelmed, he pressed the Golden Buzzer, which means Marczewski is going straight to the show’s live performances.

‘You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy’

Netizens flocked to Marczewski’s Facebook page and her beautifully written blogs (nightbirde.co), with titles like “God is on the bathroom floor,” which spoke eloquently of her experience. It turns out the young woman had just gone through a horrible year, dealing with the third bout of an aggressive cancer diagnosis and a painful divorce at the same time. Still, despite photographs of her emaciated, ravaged body (“95 lbs today!”) and bald head, with the chemotherapy port still visible on her bony chest, she fills her Facebook page with posts that are bright, hopeful, and full of faith, acknowledging a God that is keeping her afloat. She also gives credit to family; a brother shaved his head in commiseration, and drove her to the Arizona desert to bury her wedding band and marriage certificate.

Also on her FB page is the uplifting live recording with Maple House Sessions of her song Brave: “If I’m gonna break/oooh yeah/I’ll break like the dawn/and I’ll break like the ocean/ and if I’m gonna run/oooh yeah/I won’t run away/I’ll run into the sun…”

Launching her GoFundMe drive in April

In interviews, the ever smiling, bright-eyed Marczewski has said that she plans to be very much around for the live shows in August. In the meantime, her GoFundMe page, “One Last Push to #SeeJaneWin,” has doubled its original target of $30,000 after her television appearance. (Check out https://gofund.me/cf4a8e2d).

See her unforgettable performance on AGT here:

Credit: America’s Got Talent/YouTube

And if you want more, find @Nightbirde on Facebook, where this beautiful song is featured:

Credit: Maple House Sessions/YouTube

Here’s hoping this cancer warrior achieves her dream, no matter how long or short her time on earth will be. Once in a while, inspiring angels like Jane Marczewski appear to teach the world much-needed lessons on beauty, gratitude, and love.