 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
A final trip, back to the beach
By LORRI HELFAND, Times Staff Writer When Andrea Williams found out her chemotherapy wasn't working, she yearned to visit her family in Barbados one last time. But she and her husband didn't have the funds to pull it off.
When Williams, 60, learned of the teenagers' plan, she was shocked. Her trust in humanity had waned through the years, and she learned to take promises with a grain of salt. "If they're willing to do it, then I was really flabbergasted," Williams said. Two weeks ago, the teens raised more than $700 dollars at a car wash. They plan to buy Williams a ticket to Barbados and contribute leftover money to a charity that wants to ban land mines worldwide. Williams has fought cancer for 15 years; and her surgeries have created a patchwork of scars that her husband, Douglas, compares to a jigsaw puzzle. In 1987 Williams discovered a lump in her left breast. The next year she had a mastectomy. The cancer went into remission; but eight years later, she found a spot on her lung. She had surgery followed by several months of chemotherapy, and the cancer was in remission again. But in 2001 her oncologist spotted cancer cells in her spine. She underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for several months, but in May her doctor told her the chemotherapy wasn't working. Cancer has spread to her chest and her skull, her husband said. After Williams got the news in May, she pulled all of her pictures out of boxes and arranged them into thick photo albums. She wanted to make sure the memories were there for her three sons. "I was getting everything together because I didn't think I would live," Williams said. She fantasized about going back to the island home she left 35 years ago, where she took a maternal role with most of her nine siblings and where -- as a little girl -- she climbed trees, played in sugar cane fields and swam in the crystal blue waters as often as possible. But Williams and her husband, an accounts payable clerk, decided the fantasy was financially out of reach. "We're not people who live on the frills," Mr. Williams said. "We're comfortable eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Last month, during a visit with her primary care physician, Dr. Dipti Mehta, Williams shared her dream. Mehta said her first instinct was to give Williams the money; but instead she talked things over with her daughter Paru, 15, who often works as a medical assistant at the office. Paru, a Palm Harbor University High junior, and her mother brainstormed. They decided to recruit Paru's friends for a fundraiser to raise money for Williams' flight home. A handout was out of the question, Paru said. "We wanted to show her we cared and it wasn't coming out of a bank account," Paru said. She called close friend Nolan Fox, 16, a co-president of the school's new Amnesty International chapter; and they decided to ask other members to join in a car wash to raise money for Williams. Nolan phoned some members and instant messaged others. One by one they came on board. "With a good cause like this, it really isn't too hard to find help," Nolan said. On the first day of school, Paru, Nolan and friend Ian Malinowski went to Williams' home in Holiday to meet her and share their plan. She showed them several photo albums: pictures of her family in Barbados in front of their three-bedroom Bridgetown home, her as a golden-haired little girl holding her even-smaller brother and her as svelte young woman modeling a myriad of bathing suits. Then she invited them to her kitchen table and treated them to tasty island tidbits such as fiery hot sauce and guava cheese, a sugary paste made from the fruit. Ian, 16, said he was glad to meet Williams before the car wash. "It's much nicer while you're out there to really know what you're doing it for," he said."It's not just a name with a good cause; it's a real person under the name." After getting the green light from the Tire Kingdom at Tampa Road and U.S. 19, the group set up shop at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 10. Along with soap, squeegees, sponges and other car wash supplies, they were armed with fliers and posters describing their mission. By 4:30 p.m., they had two glass cookie jars stuffed with $731. Williams is eager to fly home but must wait until November because she wants to coordinate her trip with her sister, Daphne, who lives in Mississippi. Her travel itinerary is simple. She plans to visit her 85-year-old mother, four brothers, several nieces and nephews, and swim frequently in the clear blue waters. Williams' energy is waning. She forces herself to take a short walk in the mornings and spends much of the day embroidering. "I'm taking one day at a time and not letting it get me down," she said. "You're fighting it, and it's not fighting you." But she said that seeing her home again will renew her strength. "When I go home, I will be so happy to go to the beach, go back and rest, and go back to the beach," she said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times North Pinellas desks Letters |
