Baylor Health Care System Foundation President Robin Robinson was nursing a secret Friday, October 24. He was busting to share the news, but he had to wait until the Celebrating Women Luncheon.
While luncheon patrons were starting to arrive for the VIP reception in the Wedgwood Room, mic checks were being held in the Chantilly Ballroom. Luncheon Co-Chairs Lisa Longino and Daffan Nettle were being asked if they were able to read the teleprompters. Like everything in the days, weeks and months beforehand, all was fine and dandy.
Among the crowd was a dazzling blonde with beautiful blue eyes in a hot pink dress. It was the keynote speaker/ Good Morning America’s Amy Robach, who had flown in the night before. It was hard to imagine looking at her that it had been just a year and 23 days ago that her seemingly perfect life that been turned upside down. But now she was heading to the Wedgwood Room to meet with others touched by breast cancer.
While Amy was handling the meet-and-greet beautifully at one end of the room, a second photo session developed at the other end. It all started when Anatole Catering Manager Scott Pharr asked to have his photo taken with Lindalyn Adams, the Foundation’s sweetheart and the one who years ago suggested the event to raise funds to battle breast cancer to Baylor Health Care System CEO Joel Allison. Then another person wanted their picture taken with Lindalyn and another and another and another.
In the meantime, others like Barbara Stuart, Melissa Macatee, Christie Carter, Fredye Factor, Angie Kadesky, Dian Malouf, Laura Stockdale, Lydia Novakov, Isabell Novakov, Carol Seay, Nancy Carter, Anne Reeder, Emilynn Wilson, Virginia Chandler Dyke and Luncheon Underwriting Chair Maggie Kipp, were just plain catching up. A couple wondered if there would be no-shows due to the funerals of Bunker Hunt and Pat McEvoy Sr. taking place that morning.
Just as the time was approaching for the ballroom doors to open for guests, a short presentation was made with Robin, Tom Thumb’s Connie Yates and Joel. Just as quickly, the room emptied with all heading to join the 1,200 in the ballroom.
Were there empty tables? No. It seems that the guests, who had attended the funerals, managed to make it to the luncheon, too, without missing the surprises of the day and a talk by Amy that had tears welling up throughout the room.
First the surprises. Following a welcome and acknowledgments by Lisa, Daffan and Joel, Robin just couldn’t contain his secret any longer. He revealed that just the day before he had received a surprise email from Erich Spangenberger, who wanted to pledge a $1M gift in honor of his wife Audrey. In his email, Erich wrote, “Even though it was almost 15 years ago, I wake up all the time from a dream, where I remember how sick Audrey was and that helpless feeling of just praying that she would last just another couple of days. There was not a good time in our lives and of all the things I’ve faced in my life this was by far the most difficult…. I hope that anything we can do will bring some comfort and hope to the women and families who have to endure this miserable experience. It is our honor to do so.”
Then it was Joel’s turn to reveal a surprise. He started off by saying, “No one can say, ‘No” to Lindalyn.” Then a video tribute commenced followed by Lisa and Daffan presenting a book with notes from all the past luncheon chairs and committee members to Lindalyn. Seated at the front row table with Amy, it was obvious from the expression on Lindalyn’s face that it had caught her totally off guard. She hardly had time to recover, when the mass of guests rose to their feet to applaud the 84-year-young breast cancer survivor. If she was blown away by the folks wanting to have their photos taken with her in the reception, she was in tears by this act.
Robin held up a small battery-operated tea light like the ones at each of the guest’s place. The lights in the room be dimmed. He asked for any who had lost someone to breast cancer to turn on their candle. Throughout the room tiny light appeared. Then he requested that all who had survived breast cancer turn on their candles, too. More beams of light appeared. Then co-survivors were asked to turn on their tea lights. Finally, he asked anyone who knew someone touched by breast cancer to turn their candles on. With that the ballroom looked like a universe of pink stars.
Following lunch (savory butternut squash bisque en croute; grilled breast of chicken with assorted Fall greens, red wine poached pear, pecan crusted goat cheese wafer, fresh fava beans and petite tomatoes with champagne vinaigrette; spicy cheese straw; and chocolate dipped cheesecake with berries), Robin presented the Circle of Care Award to Connie on behalf of Tom Thumb, that has been the presenting sponsor of the luncheon for that past 10 years. Connie’s own sister “went to heaven” five years ago because of breast cancer.
It then time for Amy to speak. Ever since Rob Lowe spoke at the luncheon a couple of years ago, there’s been a daunting challenge to match the “Wow!” factor. He was Hollywood cool, charming and had lost his mother and grandmother to breast cancer. Like Rob, Amy had incredible looks and was charming. But she had only recently encountered breast cancer firsthand. In fact, it was just 51 weeks ago that she had been diagnosed with the disease. True, her GMA buddy Robin Roberts had battled the disease, but until a producer suggested that she had a mammogram in a mamo-van live on air in Times Square, she’d never even had a mammogram. In fact, she thought the pitch to be rather ridiculous. What next? A pap smear? But she had absolutely no family history of breast cancer and “to be totally frank, I thought I was the last person in the world who could have breast cancer.”
When she sought advice from Robin, Roberts said, “Oh, you’re the one they asked?” Then Robin persuaded Amy to do it, if for no other reason than it might get another woman to have a lifesaving mammogram. She added that 80% of breast cancer patients have no family history. Amy was convinced.
So, she did her very first mammogram with cameras showing the exam to millions of people. Amy thought all was fine and the whole issue was behind her. There was a call to go over some questions and they wanted to take another look. Even then she thought it was just a “oops” in the film or just a calcium deposit. At this point, she “just annoyed.”
On October 30, she entered NYU for an 11:15 a.m. appointment thinking she would “be in and out.” After all she had to be at work at 1 p.m. — “I never made it to work that day.”
One after another image was taken. She was starting to get nervous but still didn’t think this could be cancer. Then they took a sonogram and she saw a mass in her right breast. It was followed by a biopsy. The radiologist said they would have the result in five to ten minutes and then asked if she had anyone who could be with her. Her response was, “I don’t have anybody.” Her family lived in another state and her husband, Andrew Shue was traveling. She put Andrew on the speakerphone. The radiologist said, “Mr. Shue, I need to ask you a question before I give you the results — “Are you driving?” It was that question that slapped Amy in the face that her life was changing dramatically. She had two malignant tumors in her breast that had spread to her lymph nodes. Like so many in the ballroom, she was overwhelmed with fear, confusion and anger.
She called her mom. With her voice quivering, Amy admitted that it was the hardest call she’d ever made. Her mother’s response was just two words — “We’re coming.”
Two weeks later she went public with her situation and leaned back in her chair saying, “Well, that’s over.” Robin said, “No, it’s just begun.”
She underwent a double mastectomy, the removal of her lymph nodes and chemo.
Ironically, it was Amy, who had replaced Robin on GMA while Roberts underwent treatments for cancer. When Amy arrived for that first chemo treatment, there was Roberts in the waiting room, who said, “I heard you’re sitting in my chair again.” Then she escorted Amy to the same chemo chair where she had had her treatments.
Now that’s she finished the chemo and the surgeries, she’s figuring out how to live. Cancer made her realize her own vulnerability. As her “husband likes to say, ‘Don’t die before you die.’”
She recalled a recent plane ride where she was seated next to a woman, whom she hadn’t seen in years. The woman started complaining about being in her 50’s and complaining about all of her wrinkles. “A year ago, I would have been commiserating and it was so interesting that I’m a completely, completely different person than I was a year ago. The first thought that ‘God, I hope I have wrinkles. I hope I see my 50’s and 60’s and 70’s.’ I now look at wrinkles as a badge of honor. And it’s just a completely different way of looking at life.”
Her oncologist has asked breast cancer survivors, “If I took away your cancer experience, would you go back?” According to Amy, “Not a single one of them would take you up on the idea. Because the people they became, the people they emerged were far superior to anything they would have been, if it hadn’t gone through this… I never knew how beautiful life was until I had cancer.”
Amy’s delivery was remarkable in its sincerity and brutal honesty resulting in a kindred spirit and a standing ovation. In the years ahead, the challenge will be to top Amy Robach.