Today I met with Dinda Nawangwulan. She is the founder and make-up artist for a photography company, Shimmer Inc. I was researching on the internet about breast cancer survivors and her name came up. She had been on many magazines, radios, and local events, sharing her story of surviving breast cancer. I was very interested in the magazine and newspaper articles I read about her online so I typed in her name on Google. Turns out she has a Twitter account and that was good so I know I can contact her easily. The only problem was me myself does not have a Twitter account, but for the sake of personal project, I decided to make one. As soon as I made an account, I followed @DindaShimmerinc and sent her a tweet asking for her favor to be willing to do an interview with me. Being such a nice lady that she is, she replied me through direct message on Twitter. From there we talked, she offered me her number (such a kind lady!) and we arranged to meet in Cilandak Town Square, earlier today.
The meeting today was supposed to be at 5 p.m. which is when she got out of work but she tried to get out early so she was waiting for me in Cilandak Town Square since 4 p.m. When I saw her for the first time, I didn’t imagine her to look like she did. She looked a bit tired but she was beautiful though, definitely younger than I thought she’d be. When she saw me, she was excited- I can hear it from her voice- she is such an easy-going person. She even used slang language! After I introduced myself and explained to her what this interview is for, we decided to have dinner together. I started asking her questions and we just had a normal talk. A talk that an aunt and her niece might have.
From everything she told me, I found out that she was diagnosed with breast cancer stadium 1. She had the initiative to check herself because there’s a bump on her right breast that was like a pinky-nail penetrating. When the doctor diagnosed it, she was shocked at first but she didn’t break down. The cause of this breast cancer is her lifestyle from the past 10 years. It wasn’t healthy, she smoked, eat unhealthy and etc. Also, 25% of it is because it had been passed on to her, her aunt got breast cancer and so she got the gene.
Tante (in English that means aunt and it is what I refer to her as) Dinda was never devastated by cancer, she decided to not put herself down for doing that will make her condition worse and her healing progress, slower. Although so, she had her fears. She was afraid that she might not live again she was afraid of losing the people she loved, and she was afraid of not being able to do the things she did. Another big fear of hers is of course, economy. Who is going to pay for the surgery and chemotherapy bills? Thankfully she had her sister who helped so much. As those things were going on in her mind, she had to take an action.
She decided to do a mastectomy, which is the removal of the breast that got infected by cancer, but she reconstructed the breast using her belly skin + fat. She was insecure, losing one of her breast isn’t something easy. It isn’t like losing a phone, this is much more painful (emotionally). She is such a strong woman and therefore she never pity herself and spend hours crying about this problem. In fact, she sees breast cancer as something positive. Had she not suffer from breast cancer, she wouldn’t be the person that she is now.
She met the love of her life in the hospital when she was undergoing chemotherapy and he was having a heart problem. She was bald, constantly puking and definitely unattractive, but her late husband was very attracted to her. From the moment he saw her, he wanted to marry her. He was so sure of that and so they got together and finally got married. His name was Alex, he helped her through the hardest part of her life and that is coping with chemotherapy and the side-effects it brings to her body. Alex was such an attentive husband to tante Dinda, he would worry about her more than her parents would. They were married for 3 years and during those years everything that Alex did was for the happiness of tante Dinda. Sadly, after being married for three years and as tante Dinda was recovering from breast cancer, Alex died of a heart attack. He had the heart attack when he was with her. They were on their bed and it just happened. Such tragic. She was fine though. She thought of Alex as the angel that God sent to her and she let him go.
She stayed positive, seeing everything from the bright side. After she fully recovered from breast cancer, she created a community of women with breast cancer. Shared her story nation-wide and is such an inspiration to many patients. She is such an inspiration to me and I’m so glad I found her on Twitter.
Nawangwulan, Dinda. Personal Interview. 23 Aug 2012.
