Tante Penny, is what I call her. This very strong of a lady introduced herself to me in a hospital. There was a photo shoot in Siloam Hospital, Jakarta that day. She was wearing a red dress and her make-up on her face. Her hair was very short though, it was only about 2 cm, her head shape can be seen. From a distance, she seemed bald. However, her face was very beautiful.
I talked to her in front of the hospital room. She spoke pretty much perfect English, her English was better than mine, I was embarrassed. We had a good conversation though. Tante Penny is a very out-going person, it was easy to talk to her and she was very open about her cancer. She told me the story from the beginning when it started.
She had known about the 'lump' since three years before she treats it medically. During those three years, what she did was give massage to it. Many rumored that by giving it massage, the lump will go away in time. But after three years, the lump is still there. She checked back to the doctor and found out that she has breast cancer and is in the third stadium.
The situation became critical. She had to do a scanning on her whole body to find out whether or not the cancer cells have spread to other parts of her body. If it have, she had no other choice. It was frightening. Thankfully though, when the results came out, the cancer cells are only growing in her breast.
She then decided to under-go mastectomy. She lost her right breast and had to do chemotherapy and radiation. I asked her how she felt about all that. She said it was hard. It was weird to look in the mirror and have a completely flat right part of the chest. Something tangible used to be there, touching the part where her right breast used to be was weird.
Nevertheless, she had full support from her husband of 12 years and from her friends and family as well. They all kept her going. Now Tante Penny is a woman who had inspired so many breast cancer patients.
Purnawati, Penny. Personal Interview. 22 Sept 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment