More Than a Ribbon to Me Part 3

I remember hearing my mom cry when I was 10, and being the nosy yet compassionate kid I was, I asked her what was wrong. One day she told me she was afraid no one would ever care or listen. She was only 36 and who would ever want to see her scarred body?! I told her I would look at her scar and I did.


She labored much in her young years but her humor never left. I’ve read her writings from while she was in the hospital that will bring tears of laughter to your eyes. Susie, that’s her name (Martha Sue Satterfield Bone), wrote about chemo being little goblins just “gobbling gobbling up the cancer” that had spread to her precious head. A bright and cheery one was she and down-right-silly too! My aunt told me that when she was in the hospital she laughed out loud because the doctors had told her that her kidneys would kill her before she reached 30 and well “Cancer got her”. I was not supposed to be born because of her kidneys and I also share in that as I had to stop at 2 due to mine.

Allow me to tell you how it began to the best of a 10-year-old girl’s memory. She found a lump on her own, many over the years actually, and with this one she was told to go home and come back in 6 months. During those six months she continued birth control and being a woman with estrogen. The lump grew and spread into her lymph nodes. The end result was devastation of course. Total mastectomy and lymph node removal, a year of chemotherapy but she kept her hair! Then the news came, the chemo was not successful in removing the free floaters from her blood and at some point they will land. When and where was unable to be determined, so she was told to wait it out. Wait we did indeed but not in the way you would think, we packed and moved to Arkansas!

Arkansas brought to us some interesting beginnings. I met my first boyfriend and still the only male that has serenaded me. Oh it was precious! (You must say it like Chonda Pierce – you must!) I became ill right after moving there and had fever with wild imagination enhancement. I still remember what I “saw” coming after us while in my cousins bed. She still rose and cared for me even though this nagging headache had started. Up and down all night caring for her ailing child all the while the wandering cancer had found its resting place. She had struggled with migraines her whole life which is directly related to our kidney condition so she did not give it much thought really. I mean really, who can think when your head is throbbing right?

My aunt and uncle convinced her to go to the doctor and she obeyed. From what I have read of her journaling, she knew. This young beautiful woman was preparing to meet her Savior face to face. The doctors sent her back to Texas and I stayed in Arkansas until the day I returned from church camp. My dad was in the parking lot waiting on me. I remember that frustrating me to no end but now when I look it at I am thrilled. I wanted to stay with my aunt and uncle but knowing people now who wondered why their “_ _ _” never came for them I count myself blessed.

It was urgent and my mom had little time left, so off we went. I don’t remember that trip home…

We arrived in Corpus and I went to see my mom, wow she had NO hair! Chemo never took her hair but since she now had to have radiation they shaved her head. I have more writings of hers where she laughed out loud and on paper for all that money she spent on wigs! She was always laughing! She would have totally related to Nala on Lion King! Truly!

You know she was quite intuitive as well. She had “the talk” with me when I was 9. She asked leading questions and I had more. I do remember that. We were in the car driving down Waldron Road in Flour Bluff, TX. She was giving as well. I would come home as a kid only to find ½ my toys, books, and toys gone. My aunt, her oldest sister, was a fisherwoman galore and would find families living under bridges on Padre Island. She would tell my mom and they would go and try to help the people. Amazing! I sure wish my little eyes had seen some of that for myself. When she was sick we lived with her sister and her brother. He came down from wherever he was living and stayed with us. I remember singing a lot of Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells during that time. Oh let us not forget this is when Michael Martin Murphy had his hit about best friends and the Bellamy Brothers were the top. Willie had hit after hit on the radio and would have sworn that the rock and roll was the devil’s music and NO ONE EVER told me that. Who knows!! I thought country was IT and the only music worth listening to lol!! It was 1982!

The lady behind my ribbon.