Happiness and gratitude

Even at the end of her life, in tremendous pain, she strived to be happy. A few weeks before she died, she said to her daughter Yocheved that in order to be happy a person always has to reflect on someone who has less than they do. Yocheved quotes her mother as saying, "I was trying to think who would want to be in my position, so sick with cancer and we can't find a cure yet. And I realized that I just heard about a man, a father of ten children, who died of cancer. And I realized that he would have LOVED to be in my position – still alive and able to daven and to try different clinical trials. I'm so lucky!"…

Gratitude

For Henny, gratitude was the most potent weapon against sadness. She used gratitude not just when facing the ordinary hassles of life, but even when suffering the intense pain of cancer.

Her Son Eliyahu’s Story

My mother went to Rabbi Pliskin’s happiness classes. She’d sing, “Thank you, Hashem, for my eyes. Thank you, Hashem, for my husband. Thank you, Hashem, for my children, for my siblings, for feeling strong.” She sang that even when she was sick.

She always used to tell me, “Whenever I’m in a bad mood or in pain, I always try to think of all my blessings, especially my children.” She never complained about how much it hurt. But last summer, when for the second time she had a brain tumor, she indirectly told me how much it hurt. She said, “Whenever I’m in a bad mood or in pain, I always try to think of all my blessings. That always used to work. But this time, even that didn’t work.”

http://www.aish.com/sp/so/The-Henny-Machlis-Guide-to-Character-Improvement.html?s=mm