As told to Britt Julious
I remember receiving the call, and you know right there.
She said the results of the biopsy came out positive with cancer. She asked me to come with someone, [but] my husband was actually on a trip and he was not here, so I immediately called my sister.
When she said [I was] positive, stage III, for a few seconds, everything stopped. I no longer heard anything else. I literally don’t remember anything else. Thank God my sister was there with me. All I could think of was my daughter, my husband, my family. I just felt like I’m not done. There’s so much that I still want to do [and] want to see. I want to see my daughter grow and watch her achieve her goals.
What does courage mean to me? To me, it’s more than something that comes from your gut. It’s something that you do.
What does courage mean to me? To me, it’s more than something that comes from your gut. It’s something that you do. Not everyone is ready to share their truth. It’s the act that comes from the deepest part of your being that allows you to do things that are challenging and positive at the same time.
When I finished my treatment, we had a big celebration, and I asked my friends and family to bring scarves. I wanted to take them to the hospital and gift them. I gave my first scarf to a woman I met at a support group. When I started looking at the pictures of my reactions to the scarves I received, I wondered what [other] women actually feel like when they get a scarf. I wanted a name for this project, and all I remembered was the word “courage.” Everything my friends and family gave me was just a lot of encouragement that lifted my soul. So I came up with my nonprofit Courage for the Soul, and that’s exactly what I got. I got so much encouragement to get through my journey. I wanted to be able to pass it on, give it back, because if I felt this way, I knew that I was not the only one.
I’m just taking it one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time. It’s something, to be honest, that doesn’t sit well with me, but I’m learning to adapt. And I’m accepting that it’s okay. This is where I’m at right now. It is not going to be forever.
