Every year in this country over 230,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer. Those people all have names, all have families; all have their own stories. Some are rich and some are poor; some get the help they need and some suffer in silence until they are almost gone, some document their struggle, some participate in charity walks and some don’t.
But many of those people who live in southeast Texas find their way through the doors of an extraordinary organization that has been around for 30 years called The Rose.
The woman that has been at the helm of this organization-- who is one of the founders, one of the visionaries—has lived through every legal battle, every emotional up and down, every horrible economic error, every unexpected generosity has written this book. She kept the place running from choosing the wall paper to buying multi-million dollar machines to testifying before the legislature, to sharing final moments with a patient, this woman is sharing stories that she has lived through in the first person.
Stories of the people she has known, the people she has lost, the extraordinary staffers--women of incredible character and quality—the quirky, capable physicians and donors showing up when all appeared lost. She’s written the horrible and the funny, stories about people who embezzled and stole; and people who showed up and gave everything away.
Extreme human experiences call up extreme human behavior and she has seen it all.
She’s gathered an amazing collection of stories that reminds us that every living thing has a narrative; every living persona has a story – most never tell theirs. She’s caught small arcs of individual journeys and intimate glimpses into the lives of people caught in impossible situations who find the audacity or courage to believe in the possible.
Imagine if you ever needed an emergency rescue squad and you had to get into the car and drive to them to get help. What kind of system would that be?
The Rose meets people where they are, in the time of their crisis. It is a place filled with the substance of healing; it is home to a community of misfits, of people in need, of professionals and at times, unexpected human angels.
Yet The Rose’s very existence belies all logical thinking and its success was against all odds. It is a story of belief; a story of healing and power when one human being reaches out to another.
To read this book is to read a small concise history of the amazing narratives that breast cancer has uncovered in the midst of its own epidemic. This book she has written.