Miss Mary, a 98 year old, 46 year melanoma SURVIVOR!

(Note: this is also a note on Melanoma Prayer Center on Facebook)

Today, February 5, 2014, I went with my dear friend and Warren Plains United Methodist Church Board Chair to a local retirement/nursing home. There was a woman there, Miss Mary, that she wanted me to meet. She told me Miss Mary is 98 years old, sharp as a tack, and had had melanoma. She had me at "98."

Well, Miss Mary is a trip! Laughing, smiling, recalling the stories of earlier years that my friend wanted her to tell. She's a real day brightener. And then my friend told her why she wanted us to meet. And Miss Mary's tone changed a little and she got serious.

She looked up at me from her chair and told me, "They never gave me any medicines." And then she started running her right hand up and down her entire left side and she said, "They cut me all up and took out all my lymph nodes back in 1968."

That was all she said about it. It was in the past...way in the past. She talked about the 22 years she later spent looking after her husband after he suffered a most debilitating stroke. She kept him at home and waited on him. For 22 years. That was how she wanted it. God gave her the strength and grace she needed and she'd do it all over again because they were TOGETHER! There's no human way I can possibly write how she said that word, "together."

I couldn't help but think about her on my way home. For them to have removed all her lymph nodes and cut her up like that, she must have been somewhere in the stage 3 range. In 1968. No meds, at all.

And here she is. 46 years later. At 98.

A survivor!

And a true story of HOPE!