After TV icon Valerie Harper was told she had only months to live, INSIDE EDITION asks the ultimate question - what would you do if you were living on borrowed time?
What would you do if, like beloved actress Valerie Harper, you were told you have just months to live?
In The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman did everything they could think of. In the movie Last Holiday, Queen Latifah blows her life savings on the ultimate vacation.
But that's Hollywood’s take on life and death. Real life is a little different.
Told he had at most six months to live, computer science professor Randy Pausch became a philosopher for the ages with an inspirational lecture.
He said, "If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be - sorry to disappoint you! I'm dying and I’m having fun and I’m going to keep having fun, every day I have left, 'cause there's no other way to play it!"
Pausch exceeded medical expectations, dying of pancreatic cancer ten months later and he'll be remembered forever for his bestselling book, The Last Lecture.
18-year-old Ben Breedlove knew he was living on borrowed time. He died on Christmas day in 2012, and the next day, his family found an amazing video he left behind of him holding up cards asking crucial questions, such as "Do you believe in angels or God? I do."
A little girl did an amazing thing. Dying from brain cancer, six-year-old Elena Desserich left loving notes all over her house. Notes for her parents to find after she was gone, which they included in a book called Notes Left Behind.
Her mother said, "I think this was her way of telling us it was going to be okay."
Perhaps country singer Tim McGraw gets it right with a song about a terminally ill man who embraces each and every day and offers this bit of wisdom, "Live like you were dying."
Now, we can only watch in admiration as Valerie Harper shows the world what courage is all about.
Psychotherapist Dr. Robi Ludwig told INSIDE EDITION, "She is really trying to make the most of this time and really connect with the people around her, and that is exactly where you want to be."
