The Color of Joy

“You just have to get up, put on your bra and jeans, and do the next right thing - THIS, is what we do now".

That is what our mom would be telling us kids right now.

Pauline Joy Easterling, our Color of Joy, recently passed away after living and loving life for over 6 years with metastatic breast cancer. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in Spring of 2014, meaning it had already spread (metastasized) from its original location. In her case it had already spread to her bones. This diagnosis has NO cure, and our mom wanted to make sure people understood that. 

Despite a terminally ill diagnosis, she somehow continued to be her same loving, caring, whimsical, artistic, and compassionate self. Mom made life seem like it was normal when you spent time with her. It was as if she was not terminally ill and just wanted to enjoy each and every day. There was never a time when she did not put others first. She always thought about our family; our dad, Ross Easterling, and her children first. She kept living for us, not for herself. She was adamant; “I am NOT fighting some battle, I am LIVING.”

Thankfully, her initial chemotherapy yielded very good results. Within a few months of beginning treatment she was classified as N.E.D - No Evidence of Disease. This is a very excellent point to be at given a diagnosis like she had. Despite how it sounds the cancer is NOT gone with this classification, only dormant for the time being. She had to continue with hormone treatments as the cancer was still in her body and could have begun growing at any time.  She was able to continue with much treatment for a few years in that manner before any change occurred. 

In spring of 2018 a small tumor was discovered on her liver, and shortly thereafter the type of breast cancer changed to Triple Negative. If you research Triple Negative metastatic breast cancer you will find that it is one of, if not the worst, types of breast cancer to have. Things as far as her treatment changed at this point. She now had to begin receiving chemotherapy again; which has far more negative side effects than the hormone therapy she was able to receive previously, and was much more rough on her body.

In October of 2018, our family was hit with a blow that none of us could really comprehend. It knocked us all down; it devastated us, crushed us. Her son, our brother, Lucas Easterling, took his own life. It shook our family to the core, and made an already impossible situation with our Mom’s cancer even more impossible to handle as a family. Somehow - some way, our mom took on the grief of facing her own mortality and losing a son, and continued living. She truly is the strongest woman this world has ever encountered.

Her chemotherapy treatments continued, but had to be spaced further apart due to her white blood cell and platelet counts being so low (a direct result of the chemotherapy). The longer duration between treatments, and the chemo not working allowed the cancer to worsen. In early 2019, in a routine scan, her doctor discovered that her liver was being inundated. They termed it “Innumerable” lesions on her liver.

The latest change came a couple of weeks ago. Her chemo was, again, not working. She had been unable to receive chemo as scheduled multiple times already,  due to the fact that her blood counts were too low. Our parents were given the news that they have been dreading; that we as a family have been dreading for years. Her treatments were no longer working, and her body was to a point where they could not administer treatment any longer without only making things worse for her. It was only a matter of time before the cancer took over.

 She was put into in home hospice care, with the overall goal of it to make her as comfortable as possible, which she was. She would still go walk through her garden in the backyard with us, checking on her pumpkins, like she would have any time before. She would come to the beach and skip rocks. She came to the park at Fort Wilkins for a cookout. She still sat at the kitchen table and painted everyday, just as she always would, as if life was normal. Because she was the same loving, caring, compassionate mom we all knew and loved. She is our Color of Joy.

Then, on the morning of August 1st, 2020, Mom passed away peacefully in her sleep, with Dad asleep by her side. Her death came sooner than we all had expected, but we are all thankful to have been able to spend time with her in her final days on this earth. 

In addition to the emotional toll that our mom and brother’s death has had on our dad and the entire family, her treatments have built a mountain of medical bills. For the past 6 years they have met their out of pocket maximums through health insurance. Our dad has been by our mom’s side through it all, taking on the grief and continuing to care for her each and every day. We don’t want him to have to struggle with finances in addition to the unimaginable grief and pain of losing a son and wife. Our goal with this fundraiser is to help him take care of our mom’s medical bills and any other debts, and provide him with some living expenses for some time so he doesn’t have to immediately try and go back to work. He needs some time to try and heal.

Additionally, mom had a dream for many many years; to create an art gallery/studio called The Colors of Joy. She wanted to share her artistic spirit with the world around.

With gardens, paintings, and any and all crafts possible, we want to make her dream a reality - no matter how long it takes.