On November 15th our family got the news we never saw coming...that our strong Mom, Mema, Titi, Sister and Friend had been diagnosed with cancer. As you can imagine, those words ring in your head for much longer than they take to say. If you know Mom she looks none of her almost 80 years, so serious illness took us all by surprise!! Since then there have been tests and more tests and finally right before Christmas a treatment plan was put in place. Mom has been diagnosed with Stage 3 Squamous Cell Carcinoma and with aggressive treatment the prognosis is good-Praise God! She will undergo 6 weeks of radiation treatment, 5 days a week with chemo on the first and last day of treatment. We have been told that the radiation after week 1 will be a beast. Extreme exhaustion, intense radiation burns as well as other side effects but, like many times in her life, we believe Mom will be the exception to the rule!! "You can't hold a good woman down" is surely true for this one!! We can't ignore, however, the reality that things may go other than what we are hoping and this is what brings us here. While our family and community will rally together to meet practical needs, there will still be a moderate absence from work. The weeks out of work will be more than a financial burden for her, so here we are humbling reaching out to family, friends and any community God brings our way. We know so many love our heroic hippie and thank you in advance for reading this far!! We covet the prayers and look forward to the testimony we'll continue to share as this journey takes shape. And rest assured, while we reach out for help, her hope and our hope is in one source alone: CHRIST!!