Dedicated to Shelia Wessenberg

I woke up with Shelia on my mind this morning. I wanted to just lay there until Health reform was the law. But I got up out of bed and made me a cup of coffee and my thoughts went back to her.

Shelia died in 2005. Her husband was asked to fill out a new form for insurance on his job while she was taking chemotherapy. She asked him not to do it but he said if he didn’t they would think he was trying to hide something. So he did. And she paid for it with her life.

Her story has greatly affected me because I have walked in her shoes with breast cancer. I have posted the video of her story many times because Sheila can’t tell her story, so I told it for her. Someone who went through what she did but survived.

My youngest son was in third grade when I got sick. I hid it from him. He never saw my bald head and I had a chemo bag I carried around that just looked like I was carrying a gym bag. My oldest son knew but being a teenager didn’t focus on it too much besides I wore a wig that looked so much like my hair that he didn’t pay attention. My husband though faced it with me. He is the one who helped me as I cried on the bathroom floor when my hair sat dead on my scalp which I didn’t want to remove. It only took a slight tug but he gently removed it while I cried.

My youngest son is now in college. I have been so blessed. Shelia will however never get to see her children graduate from high school; she will never see them married or see her grandchildren. She was not given a chance at life but by the greed of the insurance company her chemo was stopped mid-point. She was forced to pan handle in the streets for extra money. Her family helped as much as they could she sold stocks and bonds and almost everything but her house. She wanted her kids to at least have that if she died. She lost everything including her pride.

Shelia you will forever live in my heart. I did not know you personally but looking at the video I felt your pain. I know how I would have felt if I had to endure what you did. May you rest in peace now that your story has been told. I thank you for being brave enough to film it. And with the passing of health care reform no other person with cancer will ever again be turned away for a pre existing condition.

Rest in peace Shelia

http://talkingeyesmedia.blogspot.com/2009/10/tem-msnbccom-provide-dose-of-reality.html