She Fought Cancer With eBay—and Found Her Legacy

It was her mother's dying wish: "Take care of my eBay." Katherine Rossman chronicles her mother's four-year battle with cancer, and the concurrent obsession with collecting vintage glass on the Internet that sustained her. Her $25,000 collection of Art Deco bibelots was to become her legacy.

On the day of her diagnosis, Rossman's mother bought a little green vase online for her daughter. When she came out of a two-month coma, she spent $1,000 on Buzzi glassware. Amassing iridescent sherbet glasses and communicating with fellow-collectors was her way of coping with an illness that she never came to accept. (More death stories.)