The one person that could always make you laugh

If you know Cathy, somehow, in some way, you have been positively impacted. Her willingness to help, support, cheer you on, pop up with a gift, or champion a great cause has been who she is since I met her in 1985. Her spirit is relentless and loving.

Since I've known her, she wanted to work to age 65 and then travel the world and live it up. She was a giver and a saver. Always great with a budget.

Then life happens.

In 1993 as a young woman, she buried her father due to lung cancer; in 2003, she nursed her loving mother through brain cancer, which ultimately took her mom's life that same year. It changed her life forever.

When she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2016, she not only had to stall her career, she had a fear that her parent's cancer was now hers. She had a great oncologist in Greenville, SC, Dr. Joe Stevenson, who assured her, "this is not your parent's cancer....great strides have been made," and they moved forward with immediate surgery. Her surgeon, Dr. Blestel was the best in the area; the cancer was removed after two surgeries. Unfortunately, tests showed she also had uterine cancer, and this is where her cancer journey began as being both "unique" and "complicated," as assessed by her team of doctors. She developed adrenal insufficiency due to the stress on her body, and she switched gears to combat this with daily steroids for three years.

Eventually, through multiple colonoscopies and surveillance, she was given the 5 year "high five." No evidence of disease (NED). A further sigh of relief came in February of 2022 when a colonoscopy confirmed "all clear."

In May of 2022, Cathy was visiting St. Louis, preparing the yard for a family birthday party, when she tweaked her back laying mulch. The pain grew worse, and she began to feel ill. Something wasn't right. After multiple visits to urgent care and a fateful CT scan, a mass was discovered in her pelvic region.

The doctor said to get an oncologist in St. Louis asap to begin more tests.

Within a week, she had a team forming and two weeks later, she found that, while her colon was clear, the tumors had grown on the outside of her colon and spread to lymph nodes.

The diagnosis: Stage IV Colorectal cancer. The "type" of cancer remains the same if that is its origin. A team was in place, and treatment needed to begin. Currently, she is a quarter of the way through her chemo treatments and has an extensive surgery scheduled in January 2023.

Cathy has taken great pride in being the "giver" and being a great saver to remain self-sufficient. She fought me on this, but I cannot watch her work so hard for 38 years to lose her retirement to cancer. She has had to attend to health issues since 2016 instead of enjoying the final chapter of her career she had hoped would take her to retirement age.

With your support, the funds will help with in-network and out-of-network deductibles, home adjustments to accommodate the coming years, minor expenses to keep her home in South Carolina, and support for the ever-increasing cost of healthy foods, medical needs and pharmaceuticals. Deductibles will only go so far.

She has already received tremendous support, and many people have asked how they can help.

I feel this is the best way we can all come together and support our girl in the same way she helped us. Even if you have only known her a few months or many years, the loving energy she expels has and will touch us all; her light will last forever in our hearts.

Our Cathy is a truly unique, beautiful, kind, absolutely the light-that-lights-the-room-woman! Let’s band together and keep her lighting our lives for as long as possible.

A world with Cathy is always brighter.