"It takes a village" - Help Tammy Weinburger Overcome Cancer

Thank you to all who contributed to our first GoFundMe. Your kindness went a long way to pay for a full assessment In Atlanta, GA in July. This new fundraiser will carry her again as she continues her healing journey bearing extraordinary monthly treatment costs for her chemotherapy, medications and clinical trial therapy. The recommended treatments are not covered by health insurance. That is why we are humbly requesting your financial support. 100% of the funds raised will go directly to her treatment.

Tammy is a beautiful spirit, selfless mother of 4, caring sister, faithful friend and resilient fighter! Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. Tammy has the determination, mental fortitude and will to beat this disease and thrive!

Tammy's journey began in Eleuthera, where she was raised by her great-grandparents. From an early age, she was a pillar of strength, helping with chores and caring for animals. She married Wade, her childhood sweetheart, and raised 4 children, now grown, with two grandchildren and one more on the way. Tammy's life took a harsh turn when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. The financial burden of her treatment is overwhelming. She dreams of returning to health and becoming a family counselor. Your donation, no matter the size, can help Tammy achieve this dream and continue to spread love and wisdom.

Her story and our family’s story intertwines in the early 1980’s. She is precious to us. You can read her story below.

Your help, no matter the size, would mean everything to Tammy.

With love,

Idelle (Ma Delle)

TAMMY’S TALE

A midwife in Eleuthera, Bahamas delivered baby Tammy Greene to her 16 year-old-mother, Janet, October 5, 1974. At the age of 6 weeks, her mother gave her to her Great Grandmother and Grandfather, “Gramma” and “Grandpa”, known in Gregory Town as Mama Ol (Olive MacDonald) and Eddie or Mr. Mac (Eddie MacDonald).

Tammy grew up in their strict home, doing chores from a very young age. “I was an extension of Gramma’s arm – ‘Tammy get me this and Tammy get me that.’ I wasn’t to go out and play like other children. I was trained to do my school work and my chores. I made my bed, swept, scrubbed, washed dishes and clothes. I knew what I had to do from the age of 5 or 6 years.”

“Before school I was up at 5am, carried as a family by horse and cart to the field all the way to the Salt pond to pick pineapple and watermelon, tomatoes and peppers and be back to do chores before leaving for school.

Grandpa wanted to get that work done in the twilight of the morning before the sun was too hot to do the field work. When the horse broke down, as a little girl, I pulled ‘the trolly’, a shopping cart, all the way to the farm and back filled with produce. After school I came in to do chores - fed the goats and sheep and the big hogs. When the goats gave birth I fed the baby goats and sheep with a bottle of goat’s milk. That was my favorite time.”

“At Christmas whether I did well in school or not, I always got presents – a dress from the dry good store or a doll baby. Gramma spent time with me on the porch playing together with my dolls, stripping them down and making new skirts and dresses for them. I was a bit of a Tom boy, too, always climbing the sugar apple tree or the plum tree, hearing my Gramma calling me in to do a chore.”

“By the age of 6 I could cook dinner and clean up after. Saturdays we got up early so the bread Grandma kneaded could go in the old-fashioned rock oven out in the back. At age 6 or 7, Grandma taught me to knead the bread and how to cover it and let it rise. All these things were fun for me. Grandma was my best friend, always teaching me to do stuff. I was right by her side. She taught me to sew and clean and cook. The wood coals had to be hot before the bread could go in. Then

we went out to catch land crabs. My job was to hold the bag. Then we stewed fish, made crab and rice, and feasted on hot bread.”

“On Sundays we got up early for 6 o’clock Mass at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church. I learned to read scripture aloud to the congregation, my part every Sunday morning. I was so scared of people that I made mistakes and was mostly mortified. We were the Alter girls, preparing for Confirmation in the Church by age 10. I met my husband at that time, though I didn’t know it. Wade was 12 and playing in the Church band when I was Confirmed at age 10. Wade spotted me and said, that is the one I will marry! He told that story any times.

“When I was 14, my great grandparents were near 100 years old. They insisted I leave for other relatives to care for me. I cried. I didn’t want to leave them. They were my world. At first I was sent to James Cistern (JC) to live with my mother. We were strangers; her way of dressing and seeing many men were clearly the opposite what I had learned from Grandma and Grandpa. On the first day of Middle School in JC I met up with Wade, who was 2 years ahead of me. We barely got to know each other when I begged my relatives in Nassau to let me live with them.”

“In Nassau, I had good teachers and good guidance counselors. Wade began to make phone calls to me every night, just as each of was settling into doing our homework. My senior year, having studied Cosmology, I entered my hair design in a Hair Show in Nassau. Wade came to the show. He invited me to his birthday party in Eleuthera. He actually had other ideas. It was a surprise Engagement party. He paid my way by boat to get to Eleuthera and right then in front of all the guests he proposed to me. I was 19 and Wade was 21 when we married. We have 4 grown children, two grandchildren and one on the way.”

“Shortly after Wade and I were married, Grandma and Grandpa passed away, Eddie at 107 and Mama Ol at 104.”

TAMMY’S TOWEL

Bahamian Government approved building plans in hand, Bo and Idelle and 4-week-old Brett arrived in Eleuthera in August of 1980 to begin a life-changing adventure to build a house on the Island. The young couple loved the children in Gregory Town, their “home base” as built in nearby Rainbow Bay. The children visited their rental cottage, drew on paper with Idelle’s crayons and markers. Bo played Island songs on our boombox and the boys turned over waste baskets for conga drums. Every day was a party and Brett never cried as long as the children were entertaining him.

Bo and Idelle would walk to the Gregory Town harbor to swim. Children of all ages came along. One day one of the children left a towel on the shore. Idelle picked it up and asked the children the next day, “Who belongs to this towel?” One child answered, “That’s Tammy towel.” “And where does Tammy live?” The child pointed to her house, back off the road and up on a hill.

Idelle walked through a few lots in the direction of Tammy’s house. Surprised to meet an elderly couple with a hog in a pen and goats in the yard, the towel was identified, and shy Tammy poked her head out of the doorway to stare. Mama Ol and Idelle instantly fell into conversation.

“I adopted my Bahamian grandmother and grandfather that day.”

When Bo caught fish, the head was saved for Mama Ol. “She taught me how to make fish head stew.”

Bo and Idelle saved watermelon rinds for the hog.

“I watched Mama-Ol knead bread; I witnessed Eddie walking with branches on his back for his goats.”

We felt honored to meet these two hard working people in their 90’s. Bo loved to talk to Eddie, who called him Buddy. So much sweetness in our love for this family. I remember Mama-Ol rocking Brett to sleep on her lap, and Brett, a toddler, giving Eddie his toy. In Eddie’s later years when he couldn’t get out of bed, little Brett was always welcome.

Tammy was the perfect playmate for Brett as he grew. They laughed and played for hours. On each trip to Eleuthera, we stopped by Mama-Ol to ask if we could take Tammy up to the house. Tammy would hurry to finish her chores so she could hop in our pick-up truck for an adventure in Rainbow Bay.

When Carla came along in 1987, Tammy's family connected to her, as well. By the time Carla was 10, Tammy was a young married woman, running a preschool. When we visited the Island, Carla spent days assisting Tammy at the preschool.

From Tammy’s perspective, Idelle is Ma-Delle, the mother figure she never had, and Brett and Carla are her brother and sister. She says she modeled the love she witnessed in Bo and Idelle when creating her own home as an adult years later remembering Idelle’s home-made popsicles and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when raising her children.

Idelle and Bo often thanked Tammy’s forgotten towel for connecting them to this endearing Island family with its unusual little girl, so capable of doing chores for her elderly grandparents.

TAMMY’S TRIAL

Bo passed from this life January 11, 2024.

Carla and Sam left for the Bahamas in March 2024 to scatter his ashes in the seas where he loved to dive for fish, in the Island so close to his heart.

Carla found Tammy after some 23 years since we were last on the Island. Carla and Sam met up with Tammy in a tumultuous flurry of hugs, Tammy calling Carla her long lost sister, loving Sam immediately, and asking after Ma Delle.

Reunion: Carla and Tammy March 2024

It was only then that our family learned that Tammy had breast cancer in 2017, had a mastectomy at that time and in order to have a more symmetrical reconstruction, opted for a second mastectomy in early 2024. At her check-up in March of this year, a lump appeared on Tammy’s sternum. She was rushed into a third surgery to remove a malignancy, Stage 4 metastasy to her sternum bone. An aggressive cancer is back, and Tammy is facing a battle for her life, one that requires frequent trips to Nassau doctors and one for which Tammy is financially unprepared. With no government assistance available to her, fund raisers at Da Conch Hut and this new Go Fund Me site are ways loving folks can make contributions. (The one Tameka started has been closed after raising money for her Atlanta assessment.)

‘Da Conch Hut’ down by the sea in the town of James Cistern supported the family and the cost of higher education for their children for over 20 years. Now 17 year-old son, Wayne, is laboring to keep it running after months of it being closed due to Tammy needing to travel back and forth to Nassau and then needing recovery time after chemotherapy treatments. It takes a lot of work and know-how to prepare and serve her secret recipe, the delectable island delicacy, Conch Salad.

The Atlanta Chapter

Tammy, back in the world of cancer treatment, without insurance, uses what savings she has and money raised for her treatments through a fundraiser night at Da Conch Hut to pay for her Nassau travel, lab and treatment protocols. Tammy needs more.

A few angels in her life offer help.

Her loyal and loving friend, Tamika Wright, starts a Go Fund Me dedicated to Tammy’s medical care and raises money that pays for a thorough assessment at Northside Cancer Hospital in Decator, GA. Tammy gets to Atlanta and is connected to Dr. Jay, oncologist, through Nurse Carolyn, a Bahamian who grew up in Gregory Town and knew Tammy from childhood. Tamika hosts her making sure she eats a nutritional diet and offers spiritual support (Tamika is a minister) and so much kindness. Protocols for treatment are being set up. Idelle monitors the new Go Fund Me site.

And that is where you come in!

If you are moved to help, and it will take a village, together we can move Tammy to health. We are asking for you to become an angel for Tammy with a monthly donation that can be sustained over the next year while she becomes cancer free and continues to get what she needs to return to her life in the Bahamas. Whether that is $2 or $200, 100% of this fund will go toward Tammy’s healthcare. We humbly ask that you come back each month and renew your commitment. Or offer one donation that you feel you can give and I assure you it will be greatly appreciated by Tammy.

Please help Tammy back to health so her dreams will become a reality. Her long term dream is to go back to school to become a family and marriage counselor, to help parents help their children by beginning with themselves and their relationship to each other.

“When we get to know ourselves, and build quality relationships, the children thrive.”

And she has the heart and soul, life experience, and knowledge to give back to the world in this way.

Article written by Idelle Packer from interviews with Tammy and with her permission to share this story.

a few more from our photo gallery