Melinda's Battle

Tonight I called my sister Melinda to see hows she doing. Calls between us seem more important lately. Making small talk, she says: "I think I will try and work tomorrow." I could feel my tears building up as quickly as those words were escaping her mouth. The only thing I could think to say was why? But I knew why. And why would I ask her that? make her have to explain it to me, this low point in her life. How awful.

I guess I should back up a little and explain myself. Last month, my sister, Melinda Chinn Prever was diagnosed with a rare form of Inflammatory Breast Cancer. So rare that there is less than 1000 cases to date. What a hit. I can't even begin to imagine how hard receiving that news must have been for her because it was devastating to all that love her.

This cancer is aggresive. So without her even having time to process this news, the procedures were underway, starting with the port in her chest and chemo quickly following. Weekly chemo treatments until April of 2017, then a series of surgeries to follow.

As I write this Melinda is three chemo treatments in. She has stepped into battle, buzzed head and all. She is focused and determined to beat this. Just crazy, a woman who has spent her whole life putting others first, now faces the biggest obstacle of her own and there's nothing we can do to change that. It just breaks my heart. I call to comfort her, but she ends up comforting me. That's just who she is, even in the darkest hours of her life, she comforts me. Selfless.

Back to our phone call: "work??? Why?" And she basically says I can't have my hand out waiting on people to take care of me. She's got a few bills and it would be nice to have a little money in her pocket. I can only image what this has done to her spirit. As if the disease was not enough, to have your whole life changed, just like that.

So my plea is this: Let's help her through this fight!!!! We can't change how the cancer will affect her body, but we can join her on this battlefield and protect and lift her spirit. She shouldn't feel the need to work when her body is telling her no. I just cry thinking about it. We can help her by donating, it's not her putting her hand out, it's us extending ours.

There's no real $$$ goal for this page. The goal is to help Melinda maintain her normal ways of life without the financial burden. As long as she continues to fight, so can we. Small donations will go a long way. There's power in numbers so please share this page. You might not personally know Melinda, maybe you know me, or the person that shared this with you knows me, she's more than deserving of this. I will keep reposting this as my sign of support, along with giving the pocket change she desires. I am lost, as a long distance sister, I just want to do right for her.

Thank you!!!!