Girls and women gathered together in the  Binyanei HaUma Conference center in Jerusalem last year, for what was promised to be an inspirational evening: Mrs. Devorah Ben-Dovid told the moving story of her battle with cancer.

More striking than her story, was her unbelievable focus on positivity.

“When I was lying down in the house after the treatments, I felt so bad, and we didn’t say that ‘Ima doesn’t feel well,’ we said that ‘Ima’s batteries are low and we need to charge them in the bed,” she says in emotional footage from the speech. “The kids all brought their dolls from around the house to my bed, and we would play from my bed. And when the teachers would ask ‘How is mommy feeling?’ the girls would say ‘Mommy is feeling great.’

Tragically, despite her public gratitude for having been spared the first time, her cancer returned. Within two weeks of the diagnosis, she was gone. She left behind a widower and eight kids. Emergency funds are being collected for her suffering children.

Watch her inspirational speech below: