Stories For and About Living Your Truth
By Chanda Temple
Twenty-four hours before her first date with a man who would one day become her fiancé, Madeline Patterson’s phone rang.
It wasn’t him.
Instead, her UAB doctor was calling to tell her that her biopsy confirmed she had breast cancer and she needed to come in the next day. She had to call her date and cancel.
“I said, ‘Hey, this is crazy. I got some really bad news today. This is what is going on,’ ” she recalled. “He was really supportive.”
It was Nov.16, 2022.
By Chanda Temple
What a week Eva Johnson has had.
On Tuesday, the City of Birmingham presented her with a proclamation for the work she’s been doing in the community to help breast cancer survivors. Then, Mayor Randall Woodfin personally congratulated her.
On Thursday, 10 years after being declared cancer-free, she finally got the chance to ring the bell like other cancer survivors.
And this morning, she led her annual breast cancer walk, the Eva B. Johnson Warrior Walk, in East Lake Park to help raise money for breast cancer research and to support area organizations that help women facing breast cancer. With 75 attendees, including some she didn’t even know, the walk had the biggest crowd she’s ever had in the five years she’s been hosting it.
By Chanda Temple
It’s a Thursday evening, and Janice Wilson is going over lines for a play.
She’s read scripts for smaller projects and even enrolled in acting classes in the past. But this right here is different.
“This is bigger because people are paying to come to this one. And I got a contract,’’ she said of her role in “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” which was presented at the Homewood Theatre in late September.
“The reason I’m challenging myself with this play is because my mother died of Alzheimer’s, and I’m trying to do things to keep my mind sharp.”
At 82, this retired principal from Birmingham’s Bush Middle School does a lot to stay active. She acts with the Red Mountain Seasoned Performers, volunteers with middle school students through the City of Birmingham’s Common Ground program, visits nursing homes, is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and has even played aqua volleyball. (She only stopped the aqua volleyball in 2024 because she was busy doing something else.)
But one of her more victorious roles has been being a breast cancer survivor.
By Chanda Temple
The comb went through Doniell Milliner’s hair, like knife through butter, seemingly slicing strands at every stroke.
But Doniell wasn’t sad as she showed the large ball of hair to her Facebook followers. In fact, she smiled in what she saw as a moment of victory.
“That means that healing is taking plaaaccccceee!” she said in a sing-songy voice. “Amen.”
By Chanda Temple
Jamie Shelby went in for her routine mammogram in January 2016, thinking the results would be the same clear results she’d received in the past.
A few days later, while she was in Key West waiting to depart for an extended vacation to the Bahamas with her husband and friends, her cellphone rang. It was her doctor’s office telling her she needed to return for additional testing.
She sat there, stunned, wondering if she should cut her vacation before it even started or return to Birmingham at the end of the vacation. The doctor’s office told her she had time and to come in after her vacation.
While in the Bahamas, Jamie tried to enjoy the ocean views and sand. But lingering in the back of her mind as she laid back in a hammock was, “Will I ever be here again?”
By Chanda Temple
I still remember the day I met Lorretta Herring.
It was the first Friday in October 2024, and the City of Birmingham’s Pink Parade in support of breast cancer survivors had just wrapped. Temperatures hovered around the high 70s in Linn Park, and Ms. Loretta sat at a table, sharing breast cancer awareness info through her organization, the Cancer Awareness Network.
Her smile was infectious, and so was her joy.
I thanked her for being one of many organizations present in the park that day. And as we continued to talk, I immediately understood why God told me to take the conversation deeper. Ms. Loretta told me that just five weeks earlier, she had undergone a double mastectomy. Her chest was still wrapped in bandages that covered stitches from her surgery.
My mouth fell open as she continued.
By Chanda Temple
It was Deidra Sanderson’s first day of chemotherapy, and things were super busy.
She wanted to try to save her hair from falling out during chemotherapy, so she opted to do something known as “cold capping,” which required her brother, who was by her side, to put a cap on her head to keep her scalp below freezing. Since he had to change the cap every 15 minutes, he was unable to take a break to even get them something to eat.
Then, Deidra received a text message that felt as though it was heaven sent. Becky Holt, a friend and fellow Junior League of Birmingham member, asked Deidra if she could bring her anything. Lunch? Coffee? Magazines?
Deidra said she’d like lunch, if it wasn’t too much trouble.
By Chanda Temple
The way Sheila Williams sees it, breast cancer saved her life.
Back in 2013, she was a 47 year old with bad eating habits and a tendency to grab the easiest meals while on the run.
Everything fried was her life.
But when her doctor encouraged her to swap out greasy foods for whole foods, she listened.
“I like to eat, but my first day of chemo, I couldn’t taste nothing. The only thing that kept me was salad,” she said.
By Chanda Temple
Every third Wednesday for four months, Jefferson County Divorce Court Judge Patrica Stephens had chemotherapy before undergoing a lumpectomy in March 2020.
The treatments left her nauseous, and she didn’t feel like eating.
“During that first week and a half, you don’t feel good,’’ she said. “You are queasy, and you feel like you are walking around in a dark cloud.’’
But she found solace in watermelons, honeydew melons, cantaloupe and the Galia melon, which is a hybrid of the honeydew and cantaloupe. They were lightweight and stayed on her stomach.
The chill of the melons from Publix, took her back to her childhood and away from the reality of cancer. And for that one moment at the dinner table, a bowl full of glistening green or orange melons was the only thing that mattered.
By Chanda Temple
The first time Brenda Hong was told she had breast cancer, she was fired up, feeling like she could beat it. And she did.
But three years later in 1994, the cancer returned and it was hard to ignite that fire again.
“All that energy and faith I had were gone because you weren’t the victor you thought you were. That makes you depressed,” she said. “But somehow, because of my faith, I was able to come out of that dark hole. But I had bloody fingers because I dug my way out.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
