Mildred's Story from New Jersey

My name is Samantha and I am 28-years-old, happily married with two beautiful babies. This story is not about me, but about a courageous woman that I know and call mother.

My mother Mildred is a breast cancer survivor. First, I am going to tell you a little bit about her. My mom was born in the Dominican Republic. She also had me and my sisters over there. We are four girls, Bianca 29, Me 28, Natassja 25, Sasha 22. Life in the Dominican Republic was hard, my mom was divorced from my dad, so as you can imagine how providing for four little girls by yourself could have been. My mother worked very hard at ''El Banco de Reservas,'' a bank in Santo Domingo. Times became harder and we were growing up when my mother decided to come to America and give us a better life. We left our island and headed to the United States, home of opportunities and better life.

When we came here, my mom had to get a job in a chocolate factory (we loved the chocolates) but we hardly saw her. After working in a bank, she was now working in a factory – long, exhausting hours and having to leave us with an aunt for long hours. My mom is a tough woman and that’s something that I have always admired about her. She showed us that no job is degrading and that you have to work to achieve goals in life. My dad then came to the picture, again. He will come and leave until when we were older he decided to stay. My mother remained the same woman he met years ago and loved and cared for him the same. I never understood why she stood by my dad even though he left so many times. My mother did some courses here and landed in a company called ''Volunteers of America, an organization that helps homeless people. She bought her house and she is still with my dad.

Two years ago my mom called me up and told me that she had a lump in her breast. I told her to take the time out and check that out. Since she lost her mother to lung and brain cancer, her dad to prostate cancer and a brother to throat cancer, she was a candidate for cancer too. She went and got that checked out. When they ran all the tests, I could never forget that day and writing about it makes tears come from my eyes. My sister Bianca calls me. I already knew what the result was because she was screaming and crying. I called my mom right away and told her to not worry, that everything will be ok. I was so mad at life, so mad because I have seen how hard my mother had worked to raise us, how hard life had been to her and now this? Why her? She is my world, and now there is a possibility we will loose our mother?

I prayed and prayed. I am the second oldest and I was also the strongest one. My dad was a mess, he was always crying. I decided to be strong. My husband gave me a lot of strength too. When they dyed her blood to see if the cancer had spread, waiting for the results felt like a lifetime. When the doctor came out he gave us the news. My mother is going to survive! She was scheduled for a mastectomy and underwent surgery. She is now happier then ever. She survived cancer. She will always tell me to be strong, that life is only but one and that God has a purpose for everyone. She now gives hope and speaks to other woman that are going through what she went through. We received bad news three weeks ago. My mother’s little sister, we call her ''Tia China,'' is dying of pancreatic cancer. They sent her home to die so my mom is by her side in the Dominican Republic. I look up to her; she is my hero.

St. Jersey City, New Jersey