About 25 years ago I was a news anchor for a small ABC affiliate in Oklahoma. While there, a cute young high school senior named Stacy used to come to the station, saying she wanted to be a broadcaster. While attempting to land an internship, she made herself available to help in whatever way she could (always adding value to everyone and everything).
Eventually, after I moved on, I heard she got the internship. I also learned that while still in college she worked herself up to reporter and then fulltime nightly anchor. Being a small market (we’re talking very small…we’re talking Mayberry RFD small) 🙂 she simultaneously worked other jobs as a way to pay for her schooling. All this while living through a very – let’s just say – dysfunctional family situation.
She won pageants for scholarships, eventually was a political consultant, mediator, wife and mom with a terrific husband and a wonderful daughter. Yep, Stacy Shelton had it all.
And, when she called me about five years ago after hearing me being interviewed, I was overjoyed to reconnect. And, we stayed in touch for about a year through email and telephone…and then I lost touch with her for the next two years.
Where had she gone? She had taken a journey to Hell. The same trip that far too many women are forced to take. Cancer. And, not only did she have it once; it came back just six months later.
In her just-released book, Me, the Crazy Woman, and Breast Cancer, Stacy shares her horrifying experience; the outer fight with the sickness to stay alive and the fight within herself to stay sane.
She wrote this book both to give strength to those who are going through Cancer and those who are their support. While her ultimate goal is for no one to ever again have to read a book like hers, for now, she wants to use her experience to provide comfort to others.
And, I’d expect nothing less from the sweet and ambitious kid I met so many years ago in small-town Oklahama.
To find out more about Me, the Crazy Woman, and Breast Cancer visit her website.
*Postscript: I finally saw Stacy again in person. She and her beautiful and brilliant daughter, Brealyn (who is the same age now as was her Mom when I first met her) 🙂 attended our 2009 Extreme Business Makeovers event in Florida. It’s there she announced that she was working on a book. Many say that; few actually do it. I knew she would though. It’s what she does. That she did it to help others didn’t surprise me one bit. That’s also what she does.
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Bob, I can’t even tell you how touched I am. It was thanks to you that I even got my start in broadcasting. Bob lives everything talks about and has since I met him over 25 years ago. He is the ultimate Go-Giver. I’m so proud and honored to be your friend.
Hi Bob,
Because of you, I met Stacy in Norman, Oklahoma for lunch on my way to visit with my son in Kansas.
I met a true kindred spirit through you. We talked and talked like we had always, always been friends.
The first time I talked with her on the phone, I smiled the entire time. When I talked to her in person, I did the same thing. There were a couple of times while we were talking that my eyes filled with tears and I noticed that she had tears too.
While I talked with her about soooo many things, I felt only joy. I wasn’t “happy” to hear what she had gone through, but underneath it all, there was joy. There were times that what we talked about took my breath away. I shared some things with her that I had gone through and she had the SAME reaction for me that I had for her.
At one time, she grabbed my hands and held them. And another time, I grabbed her hands and held hers.
It was truly a meeting of compassion and joy. There’s something totally breath-taking about a person, I believe, that has faced death (and hell on earth) and has come out on the other side ALIVE!
Blessings to you for sharing about her book, and sharing her with me!
Pamela from Oklahoma
When you told me this story over coffee, Bob, it touched my heart and never left my mind. So, I connected with Stacy on Facebook and cannot wait to meet her in person and give her a big hug!!
How awesome of you to post this for Stacy and for the many, many women/families that she will be able to now touch.
Sending loving thoughts to both you and Stacy…two very special people that I am privileged to get to know!!
God Bless ~
Sandy 🙂