Post by Rich Tate on Apr 26, 2009 11:16:34 GMT -5
The following was written by John P. Boan and published in today’s edition of the Times-Georgian:
January 23 of this year began as a good day for Susan Taylor. She did what she normally would do on any day. She cooked. She straightened up. She even made time to dance with her youngest daughter, and she felt good and full of life.
Then suddenly she felt a pain in her chest, and her son rushed her to Higgins General Hospital in Bremen.
“I thought, you know, I’m having a heart attack,” Taylor said.
But it wasn’t a heart attack. She lay there at Higgins half the night, and then a doctor came into the room and gave her the news no person wants to hear. Her small intestines had ruptured due to a cancerous growth. She was sent to Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton the next day, and the news continued to get worse. The cancer that had begun in her colon had spread rapidly to her liver, her lungs, her stomach and her blood.
Without chemotherapy, she was given four months to live, and with it, doctors said she might see the first few months of 2011, if she was lucky.
When met with such a prognosis, many people fold inside themselves, waiting for an inevitable death, but she chose to fight and began chemotherapy within the week. She made the decision for herself but more so, she did it for her five children, who range in age from 27 to 17 months. It is an everyday struggle. For days after each chemotherapy session, she is nauseated and weak.
This weekend, the toughness she has already demonstrated met with a demonstrable toughness in the form of a professional wrestler who had been her crush nearly 30 years ago. The man’s name is “Wildfire” Tommy Rich, and Saturday he came face to face with one his biggest fans.
Taylor and Rich met and embraced at the VFW Fairgrounds, where Rich was to wrestle later in the evening, in a meeting arranged for Taylor.
He was Taylor’s first girlhood crush. He had “beautiful blond hair,” she said, and she went to every match within several hours drive in which he competed. She never was able to say more than a few words to him, only enough time to push a piece of paper in his direction, only enough time for a quick autograph, and then he was gone.
“He was my favorite wrestler back in those days. Whether he was on the good side or the bad side, I loved him,” she said. “I thought he was the handsomest man in the world. I’d go out every Saturday night so I could see him, and I’d sit as close as I could, and it was wonderful. I was just crazy about him.”
Though it took three decades to meet the man that meant the world to her so long ago, it was far from her last wish on this earth. If she had one last wish, it would be for something much different.
“My last wish would be to not have cancer anymore and to be able to spend time with my children,” she said.
Since her diagnosis several months ago, Taylor said, the time she spends with her family is that much more dear. Since that day in late January, the small things take on a much greater meaning. Her 7-month-old grandchild recently began talking and walking, and though she has seen many firsts in the lives of her own children, Taylor said these will stay with her, because they represent more than a word or a step. They represent a legacy.
She recalled a conversation she had with her daughter, Amanda, before her grandchild was born. Her daughter said she hoped the baby had blue eyes because she thought they were the prettiest. When the child was born, his eyes were bright and green -- just like his grandmother’s eyes -- and Taylor told her daughter that those green eyes would make all the difference in the world one day.
“I told her, ‘There’s one thing about it. You can always look him in the eyes, and you can say, he’s got my mama’s eyes. So that will be something special for you.’”
Photo Caption: Susan Taylor hugs professional wrestler ‘Wildfire’ Tommy Rich prior to his wrestling match at the VFW Fairgrounds Saturday night. Family members arranged for Taylor to meet Rich, the object of her first girlhood crush, after she was diagnosed with cancer in January. ‘I wish I could have met him when I was 16,’ said Taylor. (Photo by Thomas O'Connor/Times-Georgian)
January 23 of this year began as a good day for Susan Taylor. She did what she normally would do on any day. She cooked. She straightened up. She even made time to dance with her youngest daughter, and she felt good and full of life.
Then suddenly she felt a pain in her chest, and her son rushed her to Higgins General Hospital in Bremen.
“I thought, you know, I’m having a heart attack,” Taylor said.
But it wasn’t a heart attack. She lay there at Higgins half the night, and then a doctor came into the room and gave her the news no person wants to hear. Her small intestines had ruptured due to a cancerous growth. She was sent to Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton the next day, and the news continued to get worse. The cancer that had begun in her colon had spread rapidly to her liver, her lungs, her stomach and her blood.
Without chemotherapy, she was given four months to live, and with it, doctors said she might see the first few months of 2011, if she was lucky.
When met with such a prognosis, many people fold inside themselves, waiting for an inevitable death, but she chose to fight and began chemotherapy within the week. She made the decision for herself but more so, she did it for her five children, who range in age from 27 to 17 months. It is an everyday struggle. For days after each chemotherapy session, she is nauseated and weak.
This weekend, the toughness she has already demonstrated met with a demonstrable toughness in the form of a professional wrestler who had been her crush nearly 30 years ago. The man’s name is “Wildfire” Tommy Rich, and Saturday he came face to face with one his biggest fans.
Taylor and Rich met and embraced at the VFW Fairgrounds, where Rich was to wrestle later in the evening, in a meeting arranged for Taylor.
He was Taylor’s first girlhood crush. He had “beautiful blond hair,” she said, and she went to every match within several hours drive in which he competed. She never was able to say more than a few words to him, only enough time to push a piece of paper in his direction, only enough time for a quick autograph, and then he was gone.
“He was my favorite wrestler back in those days. Whether he was on the good side or the bad side, I loved him,” she said. “I thought he was the handsomest man in the world. I’d go out every Saturday night so I could see him, and I’d sit as close as I could, and it was wonderful. I was just crazy about him.”
Though it took three decades to meet the man that meant the world to her so long ago, it was far from her last wish on this earth. If she had one last wish, it would be for something much different.
“My last wish would be to not have cancer anymore and to be able to spend time with my children,” she said.
Since her diagnosis several months ago, Taylor said, the time she spends with her family is that much more dear. Since that day in late January, the small things take on a much greater meaning. Her 7-month-old grandchild recently began talking and walking, and though she has seen many firsts in the lives of her own children, Taylor said these will stay with her, because they represent more than a word or a step. They represent a legacy.
She recalled a conversation she had with her daughter, Amanda, before her grandchild was born. Her daughter said she hoped the baby had blue eyes because she thought they were the prettiest. When the child was born, his eyes were bright and green -- just like his grandmother’s eyes -- and Taylor told her daughter that those green eyes would make all the difference in the world one day.
“I told her, ‘There’s one thing about it. You can always look him in the eyes, and you can say, he’s got my mama’s eyes. So that will be something special for you.’”
Photo Caption: Susan Taylor hugs professional wrestler ‘Wildfire’ Tommy Rich prior to his wrestling match at the VFW Fairgrounds Saturday night. Family members arranged for Taylor to meet Rich, the object of her first girlhood crush, after she was diagnosed with cancer in January. ‘I wish I could have met him when I was 16,’ said Taylor. (Photo by Thomas O'Connor/Times-Georgian)