My mother-in-law, Anna's Story from Tennessee

My name is Brandey, and I know someone who had cancer twice and survived. She also has had congestive heart failure and survived. It happened to be my mother-in law.

My mother-in-law, Anna, is the mother of three children. One is alive today. Chad died when he was a baby from crib death. Her second child, Ginger, died at age 20 because of a car accident. Her third child, Bradley, is my husband now.

In 1998 she had breast cancer. She told me about it and what happened. She didn’t tell me much because she keeps things to herself. She didn’t want her two children to know, but they finally got the hint because from her hair loss.

She felt lonely, scared, emotional, but finally she opened up to someone she felt she could express her feelings. The only people who really helped her any were Ginger, her sister and Bradley. She finally wound up having to have a breast removal on her left side. Soon after that, her daughter had a car accident and died instantly in year 2000. So then it was just her and her son Bradley.

In 2001, she wound up getting thyroid cancer. The doctor had to do surgery on her throat. She is takes a lot of medications for that. She gained about 100 pounds.

In 2005, Anna had congestive heart failure. The same year her mother, Sutie, died. She is in the process of recovering still to this day. She has to sleep on a c-pap machine and oxygen, and many breathing medicines.

When I read the paper and saw an ad about your breast cancer project, I was suddenly amazed because I know a two time cancer survivor for five years and been living with her for two years.

She is the sweetest person I know, because anybody that ask her for something she was willing to give it up, whether is was all she had or not. She let friends or family live with her for weeks sometimes months because they had no place to stay. She told me and her son Bradley that the reason why she does it is because she knows how it feels when you don’t have anything or a place to go to.

Adamsville, Tennessee