Since January, Cindy Lowe's gone from being a breast cancer patient to a survivor. While the path wasn't always pleasant, Lowe's outlook on the process has probably brought more laughter than tears to those around her.
"It was the worst thing that happened to me, but it's the best thing that happened to me. It really changed me and who I am," she said.
Lowe's outlook could be a top 10 joke list. She's pulled off her wig to make her grandchild gasp. She jokes that she can even go to the beach topless now and still be appropriate.
"I honestly was never afraid," she said.
In January a yearly mammogram caught something irregular. Lowe assumed it was a fibroid cyst, since she had dealt with those in the past. There were no worries.
The radiologist's face during a more thorough investigation tipped her off that all was not right.
Two hours later, she left what was suppose to be a routine visit only to see her daughter sobbing in the waiting room. Cayley, 13, heard the staff pull her mother's file and knew the visit wasn't routine anymore.
"It was kind of frustrating," Cayley said. "You don't want your life to change. I thought things would be different."
Lowe was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer, evasive ductile carcinoma.
Ever the optimist though, Lowe was determined the process wouldn't change life at home.
Lowe's family said they couldn't crumble since she was dealing with it so well. Activities, like homeschooling Cayley and spending time walking on the family's farm, didn't really change - just as Lowe had planned. But the experience changed what daily life meant .
"We live even fuller lives," said Cindy's husband, Chet. "God took us all through this for a reason."
Lowe's sister, Sharon Bartley, became her closest ally in her fight.
As a nurse, Bartley had a good idea of what could happen, but she fed off Lowe's positive attitude instead.
"It's was almost like 9/11. I knew exactly where I was when I got the call," Bartley said.
Seated at her desk, Bartley read through the typical e-mail from Lowe. At the bottom though, Lowe said she thought she had cancer.
"I thought 'God, no, not Cindy,'" she said.
The day of the e-mail was also their mother's birthday. She passed away from brain cancer.
"We learned from mom how to live and how to die," Bartley said. "And Cindy was living. She took away my fear. If that had been me, I would have had more tears."
While the humor, like melting a wig by accident over the over, helped the family see the lighter side of the difficult situation, Chet said dealing with the guilt of thinking how he would live without his love was the hardest part of the fight.
"I was trying to be strong for her," he said. "You feel like screaming one minute and then you feel helpless. That's the hardest. It's not like you can grab it, beat it or shoot it like us men like to do. You're crushed."
"You worry. Your mind goes in a million different directions," he said.
With two choices, to look at the dark side of it or fight, Chet found solace in a co-worker whose wife had also faced cancer.
"I never thought we'd have this kind of thing in common," Chet said. "He helped me through that 'What would I do - if I lost her?'"
Throughout chemotherapy and radiation, Cayley and Bartley sat through treatments.
During that time, Lowe kept walking around the farm as much as possible and prayed while doing laps through the fields.
"Before, when I knew someone had cancer, I didn't know if they were comfortable talking about it," she said.
Lowe saw people almost avoid her for fear that the "C" word would come up. She knew they weren't trying to be hurtful.
If people asked how she was doing, she'd gladly share her progress. She avoided the medical details of the process though, especially the worst-case scenario.
As Lowe went through treatments and headed into surgery for a double mastectomy, the family kept on their fighting faces.
"Cancer never had her," Bartley said.
Heading into surgery, Lowe even had the nurses laughing.
"When I went into surgery I told my nurses I was trading Lucy and Ethel in for Laverne and Shirley," Lowe said with a laugh.
"I tried to be very humorous about it because God has given me so much," she said.
Reach Julia Sellers at julia.sellers@northaugustatoday.com.
