Why I Don’t Need A Pink Ribbon To Remind Me To Get A Mammogram

This post is dedicated in memory of Martha Temple Todd and Joyce Tilton and Alicia Korosec.

If someone you love has died you never forget the month and the season of their death. I remember being in a college class while I was working on my master’s degree and the professor started talking about how hard autumn was for him. When his little girl was about 8 years old she was waiting for the school bus when a car hit and killed her. Now every year when school busses pass his house and leaves start to fall, he struggles to keep his life in balance.

My mother died in July of 1990 and my father passed the first day of May in 1995. No matter how many years go by….you remember.

I have mentioned my cousin and friend Martha Temple Todd many, many times. She was an awesome friend, mother of 3 beautiful girls and nana to 8 grandchildren. She fought breast cancer for decades and in October of 2015 she died. Her daughter, Kiera, wrote the following words.

October… one of the most gorgeous months. It’s the month that holds a lot of special birthdays in my life, fun football games, all the awesome things fall brings… but October is also the month my mom got diagnosed with Cancer 5 years before she passed and also the month she went to heaven… So October is just plain hard for me. I have this constant pit in my stomach and all the sounds and smells just take me back to October, 3 years ago.. so this year I am going to hold close to this verse and know that God is always faithful!

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘“The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him’” (Lamentations 3:22-24). Kiera

OCTOBER and Mammograms

For years every October I blogged about breast cancer awareness but since Martha died it’s been much harder. This year I lost another good friend to breast cancer, Joyce Tilton. I met Joyce through NanaHood several years ago and unlike Martha who fought for decades, Joyce’s cancer was so intense and fast growing that it took her away from her loved ones in a very short time.

 

And also this year, one of  my good friends lost her daughter and only child, Alicia Korosec, to breast cancer. Alicia was only 42 when she died.  She leaves behind a husband, three daughters and one grandson.

If you know someone with breast cancer please reach out to them and help them in anyway you can. This post is one I wrote at the request of Martha’s mother about reaching out to others.

And finally, if you have been diagnosed with cancer here’s a post about 10 suggestions for dealing with the diagnosis that was written by Martha.

1 in every 8 women will get breast cancer at some point of her life. That’s not a scare tactic to get you to have a mammogram. It’s just the plain and simple truth. Until we figure out a way to outsmart cancer we have to encourage and remind the women in our lives to have a mammogram and we have to get one ourselves. If you haven’t already had one, what are you waiting for?

#breastcancer #mammogram #pinkribbons