The hot wind does not even touch one who is under the Protection of the Supreme Lord God. On all four sides I am surrounded by the Lord's Circle of Protection; pain does not afflict me, O Siblings of Destiny. ||1|| I have met the Perfect True Guru, who has done this deed. He has given me the medicine of the Lord's Name, and I enshrine love for the One Lord. ||1||Pause|| The Savior Lord has saved me, and eradicated all my sickness. Says Nanak, God has showered me with His Mercy; He has become my help and support. ||2||15||79||
- Guru Arjan Dev Ji, Page 819, Sri Guru Granth Sahib
Amarpreet Kaur Dhami, lovingly known as Amy.
Born 01/03/1981. Passed away and merged with the Akaal Purakh on 08/22/2017. 36 glorious years. A daughter, sister, wife, and mother. She describes herself as a writer, thinker, spiritual explorer. As defined by her brother, Amy is admired by three personality characterize traits.
Her smile. This showed her welcoming personality. An ability to put anyone at ease, especially meeting them for the first time.
Her love. This showed her compassion to know who she was talking to. An ability where she gave full attention and her energy to let people know that she’ll find a trait in you and cherish it. For those who knew her, she had the power to make you smile and forget your worries. Her warmth and laughter drew you in. She knew how to work a room and would win everyone over easily in minutes.
Her bluntness. People say that her brother is the diplomat of the family. Amy clearly was not. She’ll tell you to your face what is right and wrong with no hesitation.
Because of these traits, she adopted a caring personality to help people in need and discovered a writing skill on par with professional editors and journalists.
Amy graduated Chantilly High School (Virginia) in 1999, and received a BS in Psychology and Women Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004. She went on to earn a MS in Long Island University in Mental Health Counseling in 2013. At school, her writing was published in The Praeger Handbook for Social Justice and Psychology.
Prior to marriage, she worked at Booz Allen Hamilton working on strategic policy towards personnel services for the US Air Force. This required her to attend meetings and give briefings at multiple Air Force bases, including the Pentagon.
But helping people in their darkest hour was her true calling. After marriage, she specifically found work counseling young women who were victims of commercial sexual trafficking. Amy was a case manager at Girls Educational & Mentoring Services. She worked at Community Counseling and Mediation, where she directly aided people suffering from HIV/AIDS and mental illnesses. She also worked at Crossing Points Arts, an organization focused on providing art therapy to those who were victims of human trafficking.
Several years into her marriage and after the birth of her first child, Amy was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. Not allowing this illness to define her life, Amy tirelessly looked at it as a way to define a new stage of life and allow her to grow spiritually. Her strength and perseverance became an inspiration for all who came to learn her story.
She fought like a lion and had her back against the wall. The cancer spread to other parts of her body rapidly. It went to her brain and she had surgery to remove tumors in early 2017. A stent had to be placed in her liver to control aggressive cancer growth in May of that year.
Amy never once said why me. She never once cursed Waheguru for her illness.
On August 20th of 2017, Amy was diagnosed with pneumonia. The cancer was too widespread in her lungs and she couldn’t breathe. The doctors gave her an option for a breathing tube, a tracheotomy, which would require a ventilator and it would likely be permanent. And because of this, she made a big decision.
Amy literally showed how the Khalsa spirit flows in her blood. When faced with the difficult choices the doctors gave her, she displayed immortal strength and went out on her own terms, her own free will, and won the biggest battle of her life. She didn’t let the cancer beat her. She showed it who was in charge.
Amy personified Waheguru’s will to take care of her, and kept the prayer seen above by Guru Arjan Dev Ji close to her heart.
In the end, her bluntness won, and she tamed cancer. Ultimately, the cancer was not what defeated her, but rather the pneumonia, which impacted her ability to breathe.
To say Amy will be missed by her family, friends, husband, and daughter, is an understatement. However, to know that she lived a life with so much impact, proves that she lived her lifetime to the fullest.
To get a glimpse into her warrior spirit, view her world through A Night Full of Stars.