Her enduring graciousness was an inspiration to other patients, said her husband, Brad. Instead of becoming annoyed with hospital workers for their constant poking and prodding, he said, she befriended them.
She made a great effort to select special gifts for her caregivers, said her sister, Randi Sykes. She was always looking for something purple because it was her social worker's favorite color, Sykes said. For her dog-loving anesthesiologist, Mrs. Gildin had the pet's name inscribed on a mat. She gave her surgeon a clock with the inscription, "Thank you for the gift of time."
Mrs. Gildin's nurses and doctors stopped to say hello whenever she was at the hospital, Sykes said, and to snack on the chocolate-covered pretzels she hid under the sheets for them.
She loved to bake and cook. In November, though weak from treatments, she prepared Thanksgiving dinner for more than 30 guests. For desert she made her father's favorite, pecan pie, and baked a chocolate cake to celebrate two of the guests' birthdays.
After everyone sang "Happy Birthday," Mrs. Gildin took the cake back into the kitchen, said one of her 16-year-old twin sons, Michael. He heard a thud when she dropped the cake. Instead of being upset, her son said, she sat on the floor and laughed.
In December, after her sister was hospitalized, Mrs. Gildin insisted that she recuperate at her house. She even helped her sister bathe, Sykes said, but teased her that she had better not fall because Mrs. Gildin wouldn't be able to help her up.
"She fought her illness with such strength and bravery that it often appeared she was perfectly fine," Michael said.
Mrs. Gildin volunteered to raise money for colon cancer research and to increase awareness and education about the disease.
