Penske

Why The Black Ribbon?

Melanoma means "black tumor"

Black is the color of the warrior's mood when going into battle and the melanoma patient is in the battle for life

Black is our rage when we consider the lack of progress and lack of research funding going on after 25 years of the so-called "War On Cancer"

We moved to New Bern, NC for Tim's Finance Director Job for Penske. This was a sweet job. We had a brand new house in a little town in New Burn called River Bend. We lived on a Golf Course, and I don't  think played hardly at all. This job was the best by far. We had great benefits, pretty okay hours life was good. I had a great friend Pam that I still talk to and Kasha was friends with her girls (still is). Kasha and I went to the best little church close to our house. I did know who was screwing around with who, but I got to the point that I just didn't care and was used to not having close friends in this business. So it was what it was. Yet, when we would hang out with this couple, I often wondered why? I never understood how a man that would gag me with the attention, conversation, and so on to his wife, could sleep with another woman. The concept escaped me and to this day that is an unanswered question.
During our time with Penske we were able to take the kids to concerts and hockey games and did have more family time. The problem is we were faced with Corey and school. A straight A student was failing and he just was struggling with the black kids in school. They made his life miserable. We ended up pulling him out of public school and put him in private. We were struggling with the great job and choosing what to do in the best interest of our kids. Well, after a lot of prayer and discussion with Tim and I. God took control of this situation. I was diagnosed with stage 3 Melanoma. We weren't sure what was going to happen and everyone was freaking out. I knew I was going to be okay and went into taking care of my family mode. I went under the Sunbelt study and had a Centenal Lymph Node dissection and my leg now looks like a shark ate it. The further course of treatment was to be Chemo due to having still positive cancer cells in my body. Thank God my lymph nodes were clear. Tim ended up resigning at Penske and taking us back to Maine to be closer to family. This was totally against my wish and I hated every minute of this, but in the best interest of our son, I moved.
Cancer Care of Maine consulted with my NC Doctor and a specialist in Mass decided that I would maintain on going doctor's care vs Chemo. I have been cancer free 10 years.



I hated to leave my friend and my church. Through Facebook I have reconnected with my friend, but have yet to find my home in a church as I did there. I just found they have a Facebook page and a website with Pod cast...That is so Cool!~