Dorothy Konwinski received the good news in May.
She was cancer free.
The 81-year-old was battling lung cancer. This was her second bout after previously beating kidney cancer. Call her a two-time survivor.
She attended the seventh annual Cancer Survivor Celebration last week at ProMedica Flower Hospital, teeming with optimism and appreciation for her journey.
“It brings back some of the memories,” Ms. Konwinski said. “I think the Hickman Cancer Center is wonderful. They did new radiation treatments and it worked for me.”
She was able to socialize with doctors and fellow cancer survivors at the event, which is meant to be a reconnection. More than 70 survivors, family, friends, doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel attended.
“It’s very emotional. You get attached to these people when you’re with them day in and day out for weeks and sometimes months,” said Missy Van Dusen, a radiation therapist. “To come back and see them smiling and doing well, it’s happy tears.”
The theme was hope, with a passage by Emily Dickinson as a motto. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” she wrote, “and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.”
Survivors read the poem as they released balloons.
“You never lose that fear — is it going to come back?” said Jill Johnson, who heads the event. “You never totally forget that experience. You can’t live through that and not be changed by it.”
Ms. Johnson, a nurse practitioner who’s also a cancer survivor, directs the survivor center at the ProMedica Cancer Institute. She was 49 when she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer formed by malignant plasma cells. It’s usually found in senior citizens.
She has been in complete remission for six years. When she took over the survivor event, she made a vow.
“If I’m in charge, there won’t be punch and cookies,” she said with a smile.
Survivors were treated to dinner before hearing a speech by New York Times bestselling author Regina Brett and departing with a gift.
Ms. Brett, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and columnist for the Plain Dealer newspaper, was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer in 1998. She has since written three books and given speeches on life with cancer.
Her 45-minute discussion at Flower Hospital ranged from thankfulness that cancer is no longer shunned in public, to fear because of her family history with breast cancer, to intimate details about her battle and moments that will stick with her for a lifetime.
“The day my hair was falling out, I called my husband and said, we have to shave my head,” Ms. Brett said. “I have to tell you, that was the most beautiful moment of my marriage. It was the saddest one, yet I knew I wasn’t alone.
“I remember that moment of truth when I looked in the mirror and I saw my husband’s beautiful brown eyes full of tears, and he was smiling. And I could see how much he loved me. I saw my blue eyes, and I knew I could do this.”
Contact Kyle Rowland at: krowland@theblade.com, 419-724-6282, or on Twitter @KyleRowland.
First Published June 13, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
