< her daughter had cancer and died >

[rayheinrich]

Everyone dies from something, cancer is something. There is a general consensus that a longer life is a better life but I doubt the veracity of that.

Same here. I think it's an average. But should it be an absolute average?
Selective memory loss (tendency to forget more bad than good) does tend
to make your life better as you get older because there is more bad to forget
and more good to remember.

The strategy to obtain the best life would be to kill yourself before the
bad parts at the end decreased your average. Just when you kill yourself
depends greatly on how predictable your future is. Terminal cancer makes
this decision comparatively easy. The decision when you're in great pain
but have a chance of recovery is quite difficult.

---

It's a true story from somewhere, but as Milo would say they all die, some sooner than others, no big deal.
Ray, drop the "that's" in L4 if you want to smooth out that line.
Dale

Her DAUGH ter had CAN cer and DIED.
(And she CRIED and she CRIED and she CRIED.)
"It was HER be fore ME,
that's not HOW it should BE!"
(And she CRIED and she CRIED and she CRIED.)

The feet are all anapests (except for the iamb at the start).
Maybe "that's" is longer (when pronounced) in your dialect?
The folks in my karass (God-fearing Bokononists all) tend
to substitute a short "e" (as in "wet") for the longer "a"
(as in "fat"). Of course, even Bokonon doesn't know how
those criminals in the ever-dyslexicle bass-ackward
down-under (he said dashedly) pronounce it.

Without the predominant meter L4 would be iambi trimeter. This can be problematic.

Yes, I think the decision wouldn't be whether to keep the "that's" or
drop it, but whether to keep the "that's" or substitute a word for it whose
varied dialectical (pun intended) pronunciations are consistently short.