Marie A. Sutton

Category: Breast Cancer Journey

  • Beautiful Remains

    Beautiful Remains

    I let the bandages from my six-hour surgery stay on longer than I should have. Days passed. More than a week. Through showers, trips to the store, and walks around the neighborhood, the flimsy, dull white strips were barely hanging on. Nine months earlier, I had been diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. I was…

  • Lessons breast cancer taught me

    Lessons breast cancer taught me

    I plopped down on the side of my unmade bed in search of some quiet. My noisy life of work, kids and concerns had me in a whirlwind. But I couldn’t quite steady myself. I didn’t feel well, but I could not put my finger on why.  Maybe it was fatigue from the constant late-night…

  • Becoming the one-breasted lady

    Becoming the one-breasted lady

    While standing in the kitchen cooking dinner recently, my mind flashed back to a woman I hadn’t seen or thought of since third grade: G-Baby. She was the neighborhood candy lady, who would stand at the back door of her red brick home ready to receive our nickels and dimes soon after the 3 o’clock…

  • The first step in my healing is forgiveness

    The first step in my healing is forgiveness

    The morning after I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was in bed buried beneath blankets with no immediate plans to emerge. There were plenty of Cinnamon Pop Tarts in the kitchen pantry and a paid-up subscription to Netflix to keep the kids at bay – at least for a few hours. But, around 10 o’clock,…

  • What does having cancer feel like (It ain’t pretty)

    What does having cancer feel like (It ain’t pretty)

    Sometimes, I forget. It’s usually around 3 a.m., while sleeping in bed. I’m wrapped in my favorite gray-and-blue threadbare blanket, dreaming that I’m back in my 20s – full of energy, sporting some unabashed red lipstick and waistless.  Then, I get a punch in the gut.  I jump up and claw my way to the bathroom.…

  • My Interruption

    My Interruption

    The Birmingham sky was postcard pretty on the Friday I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. Brilliant brushstrokes of cerulean stretched from East Lake to West End and the sun pierced through the sky. It was like the setting of a dream, but the snap of cold in the air reminded me that it wasn’t.…