I was 50, in the best physical condition of my life. Earlier, I had decided that I was going to delay aging by exercising and eating right, and it’s a good thing I did, because I was soon going to need all the extra strength and fortitude I could muster.

    Now, 14 years later, I can look back and see things more clearly, but at the time I found the lump in my breast I was devastated. First stunned. Then disbelieving, and then angry, and finally determined to do all I could to survive. In the weeks between my initial diagnosis and my surgery, I got to the point where not only did I not want to try to preserve the breast, but I couldn’t wait to be rid of it! As it turned out, that was for the best, because there were actually four tumors, not just the one I had found accidentally.

    How that happened is a story in itself. You see, God pushed me. I was carrying a cumbersome box through a doorway and bumped the leading edge of it into the jamb. The back edge of the box then hit me in the side of the breast. It hurt. I investigated. And there was the 4.5 centimeter lump that threatened my life! Amazing that I found it when I did. I wasn’t due for a mammogram because in those days the recommended interval was two years. Thankfully, that has now been changed to one.

    I sailed through the surgery and made such a quick recovery that the visiting nurse who came to see me asked me where the patient was when I answered the door! But soon I had a decision to make. Back then, chemotherapy was not usually done for non-estrogen-reactive breast cancer that had not spread to the lymph nodes. I could have skipped it. Instead, I took it. It wasn’t fun by any means, but I’m still alive and kicking, and the latest research indicates that under those circumstances, chemo is best.

    That’s the physical part. The emotional and spiritual part is a whole other story. There’s nothing like facing death to make a person realize what’s really important. After my successful treatment my husband took an early retirement and we moved to a farm in the Ozarks and began to enjoy life more than ever. I was already a published author, and I felt strongly that my new focus should be to share my faith. That opportunity came when Steeple Hill began publishing its Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense series. I’ve now written 14 books for them, with more scheduled through the next several years, including two historical novels!

    Would I have taken that particular road if I had not had cancer? I don’t honestly know. I do know that I am not the same person I was when I was diagnosed 14 years ago. I owe my new outlook on life, my deeper faith, my expanded career, and my daily joy for even the smallest blessings to an illness that many women share. If I have any advice to give, it is to get regular mammograms; do monthly personal exams; and never, never, never give up.