I was contacted several months ago about being interviewed as a possible breast cancer survivor for the October issue of Kentucky Monthly magazine. This is a wonderful magazine that promotes the wonderful things and places that Kentucky has to offer. It's full of articles about little shops, eateries, old hotels, small town wonders and artisans of our state. I thought, what an honor - so, I said, "fine". I didn't think about whether there would be other people or not, but later I learned that pretty much the entire issue was going to be devoted to breast cancer awareness. Wonderful!!!
I make a line of jewelry for BC Awareness as a fund raiser for The Kentucky Cancer Program. It's always available - but I really push it for the month of October, so that was another reason to do the article. Later, I learned that there would be a small group of us and they would be featuring all our stories of survival.
We all arrived around noon on Saturday and were whisked off to "E-clips" for a mini-makeover in preparation for our photo shoot. I hope to have a few snapshots of that event a little later. the stylist who did my hair said, "I see you as spunky and spiky." I wasn't too sure about that, but I just went with it and let her have her way. I will say that I definitely have an interesting hairdo. Needless to say, the whole day was a hoot. Pink was the color of the day.
The magazine had ordered black tee shirts with a bold pink word on the front of the shirt. Amanda Hervey, the author of the article had asked us to think of one word that seemed to symbolize our experience. I thought it was amazing that we had all experienced the awfulness of cancer - and all of our words were positive. Faith, strong, humble, sisterhood, growth, blessed, love - how interesting - I don't know if that says something about all cancer survivors - or just about this particular group of women. I chose growth - that was the first word that popped into my mind. I wish I had chosen something that sounded really profound, but I just went with my first instinct. My experience forced me to grow in so many ways; my faith, my emotional stability, my inner strength, my faith in myself and my abilities - and many more ways.The photographer took individual photos of all of us and they were put with our articles. Amanda interviewed us separately, but she was amazed that there were great similarities with all our feelings.
There were a few tears shed during the interviews - Amanda could put Barbara Walters under the table in bringing your sensitivity to the surface. She has a way of putting a question to you that causes you to sort of dig through your feelings. It was a bit like a therapy session. Amanda can be seen below - she's the only one without a WORD on her chest.
Our photographer
made us all feel like top models as he put us in various poses for that large individual picture. "Give me that dreamy look" - - - "Look right into the camera", "That's perfect", "Let's do one more really good one". Vogue, here we come!!!!
Time for a quick group hug and then it was off to dinner at the fabulous Italian restaurant the staff had picked out for us. This dinner was not only for us, the survivors, but we were joined by Steve Vest - the editor of the magazine - and his beautiful wife Kay. They wanted to be a part of the celebration and that served to make it even more special.All in all, this was a most wonderful experience and I've since heard from some of the other ladies in our group. I'd love to add updates to this section of my blog as I hear from some of the other women who were part of our group. We all thank Kentucky Monthly and most especially Amanda Hervey for her professionalism in the preparation of the article and to Steve Vest for making it all possible. We all thank you, and we hope and pray that all the positives in the article will be an inspiration for all women who are in the process of diagnosis, treatment and/or recovery from the treatment. This, too, shall pass. Thank you, Kentucky Monthly.
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