As I completed the second half of my observations, and did my interviews, I was able gather more information about my community from a different perspective. After immersing myself within the group, I was able to come across some things, and a few facts that are honestly surprising to me.
As I joined the breast cancer survivor group to observe their group and interactions, I was first struck by the varying ages of the women. The youngest woman was thirty-four, and the oldest woman getting close to her seventies. As far as the women and their appearances- I was surprised to see that even though a battle for their lives, they still all looked relatively healthy and poised. They all wore big bright smiles and gave warm, inviting hugs to me, a complete stranger to the group.
As the group’s moderator (a friend who is a counselor and a former colleague of mine) started the group by introducing me, and also explaining what my purpose was during the meeting. The next few topics were to discuss when the next meeting would be held, and also if anyone had anything new to add since the last time they had gathered. One of the women had just had blood work drawn, and everything had come back normal. The moderator then talked about a news article she had come across, and she felt as though the women could benefit from a brief discussion about it. During this part of observation, I was picking up on the body language of the women, and noticed how comfortable they seemed in this particular environment.
During the second part of observing the meeting, the group of women meeting could have been mistaken for a different group of women meeting for a night out downtown. This group was celebrating so much more than just a night out, they were celebrating their lives! They shared stories about their treatment, what they were doing to maintain their health and what they thought about their oncologist during their treatment. I found it interesting that although this group has been meeting for quite some time, they still had so much to catch up on. They flowed from breast cancer topic, to mom topics, to family topics and back again to breast cancer topics. Something that I definitely noticed was that these women were discussing life events and along with that, comes the looming topic of breast cancer.
Throughout the explorations and interviews one thing that was a common thread was the strength of all the women. In one of my interviews, the woman was still in recovery, just having a double mastectomy only three short weeks ago, yet she was still willing to provide answers to my questions for the interview. One thing I found in another one of my interviews was a breast cancer survivor explaining that she had not taken part of any breast cancer support groups, and relied on her family, friends and church congregation for support. Going into this project, I had anticipated that all of the women would be active in breast cancer support groups. That was not the case at all though! A surprisingly large number of the women I spoke to leaned on their family and friends as their only support group. One of the women commented while she was going through treatment, she didn’t want to have to put her energies into supporting another stranger. If this time was going to be close to the end of her life, she wanted to be with people she knew, and loved- not trying to make new friends and support other cancer patients. When I first heard this it struck me as a bit odd, but the more I thought about it, the more I understood it. I have come to realize that each woman seeks what she needs for that time in her life. Each survivor’s path is different and each follows their own unique needs.
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