In 2001 I came to a place called "Horse Rescue, Relief and Retirement Fund" aka "Save The Horses" and there, I met a woman named Cheryl Flanagan. Cheryl taught me a lot of things, one of these things was "In order to truly be someone's friend, you have to accept them the way they are." And that is true. You cannot expect anyone to change who they are, to suit your needs. I am hard-headed and I was known for my temper and Cheryl and I butted heads a few times. But Cheryl never held it against me, it was just part of who I am and she accepted that.
I had a lot of great times at the rescue, when I first started volunteering there, a lot of times, I was the only volunteer there. I remember days where there was snow and ice and I was trying to push the wheelbarrow down the driveway to feed all the hungry mouths, slipping and sliding all the way. I didn't mind, it was a labor of love.
I experienced a lot of heartache there also, deaths of horses that were dear to me. Trying to save an old soul and ending up having to let him go. But that is what we do, we rescue animals, sometimes we can only rescue them from this life and help them to pass peacefully, knowing someone cared for them.
I also met Cheryl's sister, Michele Williams. Michele runs a Canine rescue "Ga Canine Adoption Network." Michele and I knew each other, but I was engrossed in the horse rescue and didn't talk to Michele a lot.
Eventually, the horse rescue grew and a LOT of volunteers started coming every day. Everyone that knows me, knows I am not a great people person. I stopped doing the hands-on stuff because I couldn't deal with how many people were there every day. I missed being there, because it felt like home. I tried other places, other states, but I was always wanting to go home.
Fast forward to 2016, Cheryl asks me to come and stay at her house and take care of her dogs. While I was there, I found a lump in my left breast. Oh crap! So I go to the doctor and they do a biopsy. I had Invasive Ductal Carcinoma!
I got treatment, I had a double mastectomy in 2017, I also had my ovaries removed because we found out I have the BRCA1 cancer gene.
Michele Williams is my hero. She took me to all my doctor appts, went with me for biopsies, stayed with me when I was having surgery, got up at ungodly hours to make sure I got to my appointments on time.
Then, the cancer came back. I had a tumor in my right lung and a biopsy confirmed my breast cancer had spread into my lung. 3 months Chemo, Michele was with me every time. I decided I had had enough, I told my doctor that I was done with being sick and tired. I told him I wasn't doing any more chemo and asked him to set me up with the surgeon. In April 2018 I had surgery to remove the tumor from my lung.
6 weeks later, I had a CT Scan to do a follow up from my surgery. My doctor came into the exam room and he had tears in his eyes. He told me that I now had 10 tumors in my lungs and there wasn't anything left to do for me. My doctor hugged me and told me he was sorry.
I have this to say: To Michele and Cheryl, Thank you for treating me like family, but most of all, Thank you for giving me roots. :)
So, now I am going to die. I have so many people that find out I have breast cancer and they say "Well, you're a survivor",,,NO, I am NOT a Survivor! It's killing me!
I don't have a supportive family and it's been that way my whole life. So, I donated my body to science, Emory University, to be exact. I found out yesterday, that they only accept about 40% of the bodies donated to them and that I needed to have a "Plan B" in place. Well, great, I don't have a plan B. I don't have life insurance.
So, I spoke with Michele and I told her that I would try to do a fundraiser. It would be, for just a regular cremation, no viewing, about 5 grand. If I raise the money and Emory accepts my body, all funds would go to Ga Canine Adoption Network.
If you would like to help, here is the donation button, please mark your donation as being for "Plan B". The button below goes straight to Ga Canine Adoption Network.
Thank you
