Cancer Patient's DIY Obituary Garners Countless Facebook Likes

She lost her battle with cancer, but she won many hearts.

Two weeks before she died, Emily Phillips asked her family if she could read the obituary she'd written for herself. Gearing up to read it, the entire family sat around her and got ready to hear it.

"It pains me to admit it, but apparently, I have passed away," she wrote in the obituary.

Her daughter, Bonnie Upright, recalls that when they heard it, they all were laughing and crying. "It was one of the most special moments of my life to hear my mother tell her life story in her words, in her way, in what were incredibly difficult circumstances," Upright told ABC News. "So as tragic and as sad as death is, her courage and her bravery in facing her death and in wanting to leave a mark her way is incredibly special to the family."

She was 69, from Orange Park, Florida, and died just 29 days after she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. However, her "sassy personality" is reflected in her viral self-written obituary.

By last Thursday, her Facebook post got more than 4,000 "likes" and her story was read all over the country.

"We all think our mom is the best - as they should," Upright said. "To have that mom and a moment of clarity and a moment of grace with a sense of humor -- which is how she raised us -- was just truly something remarkable."

Phillips details growing up as a middle child, marrying the "man of [her] dreams" and her loving bond with her grandchildren. She twirled a baton to the tune of "Dixie" for the Miss North Carolina pageant, and giggled that her granddaughter for shaving off one of her eyebrows. She also said sorry to a friend for dating a boy that she was infatuated with.

"And if you don't believe it, just ask me," Phillips wrote. "Oh wait, I'm afraid it's too late for questions. Sorry. So ... I was born; I blinked; and it was over. No buildings named after me; no monuments erected in my honor. But I DID have the chance to know and love each and every friend as well as all my family members. How much more blessed can a person be?"

Upright said that the obituary has helped her family to cope. "It helps put a smile on our faces a little bit sooner than we thought," Upright said. "I hate that she's gone. I hate that that's reason for this. But by golly, I could not be more proud."