Stories For and About Living Your Truth
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.”
*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.”
By Chanda Temple
Tonya Allen ran her hand across her right breast and couldn’t believe it. A small lump sat beneath her fingertips.
“This couldn’t be cancer,’’ she thought. “Not me!’’
But a later visit with the doctor and a 3-D mammogram confirmed she had an estrogen-positive cyst, which would rise in her breast when she was on her period and go down when she went off her period.
Denial was strong that January morning in 2020 as the doctor suggested an option: “You should have a lumpectomy.’’ But Tonya needed more information before making such a big decision.
*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.
By Chanda Temple
Erika Council is used to lines.
One forms outside her Atlanta restaurant, Bomb Biscuit Co., every weekend as people wait to get their fix on one of her stacked, pillowy buttermilk biscuits filled with fried chicken, scrambled eggs, bacon and more. The wait is usually an hour.
But luckily for Birmingham residents, the wait at Sloss Furnaces today wasn’t anywhere near that long. Granted, there was a continuous line at Erika’s tent during the Southbound Food Festival’s Funk Brunch, where she offered buttered, golden biscuits filled with a hot honey glazed fried thigh and bread and butter pickles. Yet, the line moved quickly and easily as a team fried the chicken on site, dipped it into the glaze, plated it and handed it off to attendees, one by one.
The biscuit looked like a skyscraper on a plate. Its height and layers were enough to turn heads.
By Chanda Temple
Can we talk about the power of manifestation for a minute?
About six or seven years ago, Jimmy Proffitt told himself he was going to write a book. He didn’t know when. He didn’t know how. He didn’t even know the topic. But he knew he was going to write one.
Then, he wrote it down and said it out loud. (Which are all ways to stay true to manifesting, which is believing you can do something, staying focused on it, remaining positive on it and working on it until it becomes reality.)
By Chanda Temple
The blood that runs through Sarah Cole’s veins is half Egyptian and half Southern, a blend that shows up in her food story.
That mix is what fueled her dream of bringing Egyptian food to Greensboro, a rural city in west-central Alabama, where fast food chains and meat-and-three restaurants appear across the landscape like dots on a domino. While friends supported her, some people questioned her vision. Their whispers got back to her: “Make sure she knows to include something very Southern on the menu because we are probably not going to like her spices too much.”
The words stung, but Sarah refused to let negativity stop her because they were just opinions, and opinions don’t build dreams. Courage does.
By Chanda Temple
Southbound Food Festival, a 10-day celebration of Birmingham’s food culture, will spotlight more than 100 chefs, musicians and beverage professionals through signature tasting events and collaborative culinary experiences, Sept. 19-28. The festival was named the No. 3 best new festival by USA Today, following its inaugural year in 2023.
By Chanda Temple
If you are planning to eat before or after catching “Love, Brooklyn” in Birmingham, the team at Sidewalk Cinema has you covered.
Both Chloe Cook and Corey Craft recommend Salud Taqueria . Chloe loves their tacos, and Corey goes for the Pastor Al Trompo tacos, which features thinly-shaved pork shoulder, fresh pineapple, red onion and cilantro. (But here’s a tip: the Pastor Al Trompo, which is marinated overnight in a family recipe, is not available on Sundays.)
