Stories For and About Living Your Truth
By Chanda Temple
When Javacia Harris Bowser walked into her doctor’s office and saw a big box of tissues in January 2020, she knew what words would come next.
She had breast cancer.
The doctor was expecting Javacia to cry. She did not. In fact, it would be some time before Javacia shed a tear over the news of being diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. Instead, Javacia, a Type A person with an award-winning writing background, pulled out a notepad and said, “Ok, what do we need to do?”
By Chanda Temple
“Pat, pat, pat.”
That’s the sound of ground turkey as Mellanie Frazier shapes it into hand-sized burgers.
Filled with fresh pico de Gallo and seasonings, it’s a familiar scene in her kitchen, where she’s made more healthful meals for her husband, three sons and herself since being diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2015.
“In the past, I’ve used purple onions, regular onions, bell peppers, Zesty Italian dressing and a little salt and pepper,” says Mellanie, 48. “Everybody seemed to like them.”
By Chanda Temple
Five wings and sweet potato casserole.
That’s all Kimberly Callines wanted from Piggly Wiggly following her ob/gyn appointment at a Birmingham hospital in February 2022 . In fact, she wanted the meal so badly that she had made up her mind she was going to skip her scheduled mammogram right after her gynecologist visit and head down the street to pick up the Southern delicacy.
But as she stood at the elevator, ready to push the button to the floor that would take her to her car, she changed her mind when she heard God say, “Go get the mammogram.”
She followed orders and had the mammogram. The technician looked at Kimberly’s images and said, “Un-uhh. They may call you back for another mammogram.”
That call back set things in motion that forever changed Kimberly’s life. Additional testing showed that she had Stage 1 breast cancer.
By Chanda Temple
Tomeka Clemons’ breast cancer journey started in November 2023 when she went in for a routine mammogram. She went home, thinking things were OK. Then, a letter arrived in the mail, telling her the mammogram looked suspicious. A second letter soon arrived, asking her to return for a second mammogram of her left breast.
She returned for another mammogram. The radiologist looked at it and told her she was good. She could return in a year for another mammogram. But God saw different, telling Tomeka to seek a second opinion.
Tomeka has what’s known as “lumpy breasts,” and she could feel a small lump in her breast that just wouldn’t let her rest. “Maybe the mammogram missed it,” she thought. She had her mom feel the lump and her husband feel it. And then, she had her gynecologist, who was a breast cancer survivor, feel it.
They all agreed with Tomeka, there was a lump.
By Chanda Temple
“How in the world do I have breast cancer?”
That’s what Marcella Roberts wanted to know after a routine mammogram and later a biopsy showed she had Stage 2, triple negative breast cancer, which is a cancer that is common in women of color and experts have more difficulty pinpointing what fuels it.
Marcella had no symptoms, no signs and no one in her family had had breast cancer. And even though breast cancer can show up without symptoms or a family history, Marcella still wondered, “So, how did this happen?”
But pretty soon, she had to put down that question and pick up the fight for her life.
By Chanda Temple
Six weeks.
That’s all it took for Ebony Arrington Steele’s life to change.
Six weeks after being selected as a co-host for a nationally-syndicated radio show in Dallas, Ebony found herself in the doctor’s office to investigate what felt like a hard marble in her right breast.
She was 35, living her dream but now facing her biggest test: cancer.
By Chanda Temple
Every Thursday, right after Tonya Adams’ breast cancer office visits, she and her mother had a standing date at Edgar’s Bakery in downtown Birmingham.
They’d walk in and the staff already knew what they wanted: a chicken salad box with a croissant, fruit and a slice of strawberry cake or strawberry cupcake.
For Tonya, it was like eating hope on a plate.
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
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.”
*In America, one in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I will be profiling one female breast cancer survivor each day in October 2025. The stories will also highlight a food from a Birmingham, AL restaurant or vendor they liked at some point during their breast cancer journey or today. The series is called “SurviveHer at the Table: Food. Faith. Fight.” The stories can be found on this blog under the tag SurviveHer in the search bar.
By Chanda Temple
Cancer treatments not only robbed Marie Sutton of her right breast and hair in 2018, they also robbed her of the ability to taste.
Some of her favorite flavors were now distant memories.
She could only admire the garlic butter brushed across the thick crust on her favorite spicy pizza.
Her mother’s macaroni and cheese was pretty on a plate but foreign to her palate.
And the crunch of fried catfish was all she could appreciate because the filets simply tasted like sand.
