WASHINGTON - A local woman's tribute to her late husband is almost complete and ready for the world to see. It's a giant mural depicting his struggle to get health care.

Regina Holliday paints through her pain. She's turned the wall of the BP gas station on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest D.C. into a mural about her husband's three-month battle against kidney cancer -- he died in June -- and the family's other battle against a sick health care system.

"If you see injustice, you don't just stand by and let it happen. You do something to change it," said Holliday. "My husband basically told me to go after the system -- do whatever you can to fix it!"

The 20 by 50 foot painting is full of symbols. Besides a dying Fred Holliday, there's a two-sided Regina -- caring wife and exhausted caregiver. There's also the image of their two young sons and shadowy medical figures and forms.

"That was what this painting is all about was the fact that -- wow! Patients have almost no rights! Like you have to pay 73 cents per page for your medical record. You have to wait 21 days to get it. You're not necessarily part of the consultation process," she said.

"Between the two of us we worked five jobs. I worked retail; I taught art. My husband [was an] adjunct at two universities and was a video store clerk," added Holliday.

But they couldn't afford family health insurance or the tests that might have detected Holliday's cancer early enough to save him. Now people walk by and watch as his widow furiously paints.

"[She's] using her personal sorrow for [the] greater good," said Jill Martin, a passerby.

But like the national debate, she does have critics. "I had my first screamer," said Holliday. "My first town hall like screamer. I was up on the high ladder at the time too, so I was pretty scared."

But she keeps painting even as she grieves. Said Holliday, "If I save one life because of what I'm doing then isn't it worth it?"

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