For her last gasp was a story in itself.

Because freedom and liberty and equality are as vital as breath, we only notice their absence when we are left gasping when the colors of diversity and individual liberty are drained from the world around us.

Some days punch us in the gut so hard it seems we can feel the whole universe gasp with despair.

Brush strokes write poetry harmonized through the cords of an artist's imagination.Color, contrast, simple compassion splattered across paper leaves tainted with the melody of the silent wind.Gasping, grasping, simply glancing at the souls of those who were not blessed with the visionary sight of inspirational artistry.

I saw a guy faint at the W. M. Keck Observatory, he stepped out from the tour group and said to me "I'm feeling sick" and then his eyes rolled back and his knees gave way! The group caught him on his way to the ground and he got free emergency medical oxygen for half an hour before being evacuated off the summit by his tour group!!! His friends stated that he was considered the healthiest person in the group while he was gasping for breaths of life on the summit of Mauna Kea! Never saw him again.

A brave man could conquer fear, he had learned that, but perhaps only for a time. It was something the young did not understand, the way it could gnaw at a man, the way it came back stronger every time, until you were alone and gasping for breath.

In August, an inescapable blanket of heat settled over Paducah, the last gasping breath of summer roaring its weight out over the populace.