THE PHOTO SAYS IT ALL

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I am sorry if this picture and verbiage is too graphic or crude for anyone, but I am really feeling this way, and don’t care! I learned on Friday that a friend of mine’s life ended, and was cut way too short because of this shitty disease. When we lived in Birmingham ( for ten years), we lived around the corner from a precious family. The husband was our doctor, and his wife was about the coolest, sweetest and fashionable girl in town. I passed their house everyday, and loved when I would see her out in the front yard with her kids and dogs. She had a great smile and a twinkle in her eye.

Fast forward to 2013. A mutual friend called to tell me that Vickie had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I was so sad, but knew the odds were that she would beat it, like all of the other girls I knew had. We prayed for her and wished her well on the journey she was about to take with a breast cancer called Triple Negative. Six weeks later, I would be diagnosed with the exact same thing!!!  Vickie, being ahead of me, was a source of help as I was starting my own journey into this STUPID disease. We would talk on the phone about losing our hair and what symptoms we were having. She made me feel so much calmer about the whole thing.

This past fall, her cancer came back and did exactly what I’ve read it does, which is to make it’s home in the lungs or liver. Triple Negative is so very NASTY!!! I’ve read a lot about women living with metastatic cancer, and really thought she would kick it again. It was such a shock to hear that her life ended.

Recently I got asked to be a part of a video that is being made in Dallas for an event, in May, to raise money for breast cancer. The video is called “Stripped” and I, along with about fifty other women were filmed separately naked from the waist up (faces won’t be shown on our bodies). The video will show both healthy breasts and breasts that have been ravaged by breast cancer. I then have been asked to be a part of the photography part of this event. I was not sure if I should do it, but now I am going to, and hopefully they will let me dedicate mine to the memory of my sweet friend Vickie.

I know God’s timing is not our’s, but I sure don’t understand it.  I don’t understand this shitty disease either! Her passing makes it much more clear to me, to live in the moment, and enjoy every single day. I’ve always heard that God takes the best ones first, well…heaven got a beautiful shining angel on Friday!!! Vickie, you will always be remembered as a wonderfully fierce warrior to me!!!

Photo: via