In Memoriam

Jessica Pasquarello Vashaw '06 She didn't take a second of life for granted By Karen Hammond '64

When the parents of Jessica Pasquarello Vashaw '06 dropped her off at UNH to begin her freshman year, she gave them a note that read, in part, "I realize what a great opportunity I have and I will not take one single second for granted." Vashaw, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 21 and died of the disease in November, fulfilled her promise.

As a child, she was unusually compassionate, says her mother, Cheryl Pasquarello. "Jess was on a bus in a snowstorm once when she was about 7," she says. "The bus got stuck and another little girl was scared and crying. Jess went to her and took her hand and told her that everything would be all right." At UNH, Vashaw studied nursing and also earned a master's degree from the University of New England's nurse anesthesia program.

Nine months after her diagnosis and the surgery, chemotherapy and radiation that followed, Vashaw entered a marathon in Burlington, Vt. When she crossed the finish line, her boyfriend, Riley Vashaw '06, was waiting for her with a diamond and sapphire engagement ring.

Her tenacity impressed all who knew her. "She was more driven than anyone I know," says Riley. "She was a person who attacked things head on. When faced with a problem, Jess never shied from the challenge. She educated herself, trained herself and conquered it. Failure was not an option."

Being known as "the girl with cancer" was not an option either, say her husband and mother; instead, she focused on setting and achieving new goals. Vashaw led a normal if extremely busy life. She worked in the surgical intensive care unit at Fletcher Allen Hospital, married Riley in 2008, traveled, ran—including several half-mara-thons—rowed with Dragonheart, a paddling team of breast cancer survivors in Burlington, Vt., and loved spending time with her family and friends.

In January 2010, despite having learned six months earlier that her cancer had spread, Vashaw and Riley, who is also a nurse, joined a medical mission to the Galapagos Islands. With other medical professionals, they helped perform 49 surgeries in seven days. To celebrate their second wedding anniversary, they went skydiving; August found them whitewater rafting.

She found out in October that her cancer had metastasized again. "Every person has a thousand wishes," Riley recalls her saying, "but a cancer patient only has one: to get better." Says her friend Kate Haberstro, "So many people don't appreciate the life they have. But Jess really did."

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