By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Larry Glass never noticed cancer treatment drugs advertised on television. They were always there, but they were merely background noise on the soundtrack of his life. All that changed on Nov. 12, 2015.
“My mother has probably had the biggest impact on me,” Glass said. “And when I found out…that my mother had 3 to 6 months to live, it really, really rocked my world.”
On that date, two oncologists at T. J. Regional Health told Larry’s father, Larry T., that his wife Geraldine’s lung cancer had metastasized on her bones and brain.
Glass remembers his mother as a hardworking woman who “never stopped till she went to bed.” She was the vice president at Glass Construction, founded in 1978, knowing very little about accounting, finances and numbers. Through her hard work and persistency she mastered her work and had a big hand in making the company what it is today.
On top of her professional responsibilities, Glass said, she also raised a family: Larry and his sister, Sherry. Geraldine was always the family’s “number 1 fan” in whatever he and his sister decided to do either academically or extracurricularly.
“Every function or every sport I did, my mother was always there,” Glass said. “My sister was in the band. [My mother] didn’t miss a thing.”
It was due to her consistent support, and her prominence in his life, that Glass decided to stop all that he was doing and spend as much time as he could with her in those final months. She remained in “very strong” spirits throughout.
“We had a lot of good talks,” Glass said. “She never fully accepted she was going to die because she was going to fight it and as time went on it became apparent to everyone, and to her, that she wasn’t going to make it.”
Glass said he did a good job, outwardly, of “keeping it together,” but he remembers one of the few times he “broke up.” His father was waiting hand and foot on his mother, which wasn’t the norm in Glass family, and she could not understand why he was doing that.
“She says, ‘I don’t know what’s going on with your dad, he won’t let me do anything,’” Glass said. “I got emotional and she grabbed me by the arm, I’ll never forget it, and she said ‘don’t you do that. God has been good to me. He could not have been better to me and I wouldn’t change a thing if I had the ability to do so.’ It just stopped me dead in my tracks and made me realize how strong my mother was.”
Previously, Glass and his father would poke fun at Geraldine as a “glass half empty” type of person, but from that moment on he realized how truly strong his mother was. Given the circumstances, it is normal to expect that a person would become bitter or depressed, but she never was; she was thoroughly a “glass half full woman,” he said.
Geraldine lived two months and three weeks after the fateful cloudy November afternoon diagnosis. About a week before she died, Glass remembers, they purchased a hospital bed and recruited hospice to tend to his mother at their home rather than the hospital. After some protesting from Geraldine, she agreed to return home. His job, Glass said, was to give his mother morphine to make her comfortable.
She went home on a Wednesday, Glass said, and on Super Bowl Sunday she got the sudden burst of energy that comes when a person is nearing the end of their life.
“She pops up in bed and tries to say something, at this point she couldn’t talk plainly, so it was almost a grunt type talk…she tried to communicate with her grandkids and hugged everybody,” Glass said. “I remember having to leave the room because I remembered that when you go through all this stuff and study and read what happens in the end…[the Hospice nurses] said ‘right before she dies she’ll get this sudden burst of energy and you’ll think gosh she’s going to get better.’ I knew it was a matter of hours.”
Glass then left to go to his home to recuperate and gather his things to spend the night with his mother before returning to Geraldine and setting up his things in her room. Very early in the morning, at 1 or 1:30 a.m. he recalls, Glass and his father were woken up by the sounds of his mother’s agitation. At his father’s recommendation, Glass gave his mother some morphine to ease her pain and help her sleep.
“As I was administering the morphine I heard her take her last breath,” Glass said as his voice cracked.
Geraldine Flowers Glass died on Feb. 8, 2016. She was 71 years old.
It’s this story along with his personal story that Glass, and four other scheduled speakers, will share at T.J. Samson Community Samson on Nov. 3.
“I’ve never shared my story publicly, I know I can do it, I’ve done a lot of public speaking that’s not the issue, it’s just when you share something like that…it all comes back,” Glass said. “They want me to share my story and I said ‘my story doesn’t happen without my mother’s story’ because almost three months to the day I found out I had colon cancer.”
Tina Combs, community medical care program coordinator, said some people in the community would likely remember a similar event: The Pink Power Hour. However, the main difference between that and the new event, the Care Power Hour is that the proceeds of this event will go to assisting people with all types of cancer, not only breast cancer.
Treatment travel expenses, gas cards, supplies — like specialized nutritional drinks — and transportation to and from treatment are all things these proceeds will go toward funding, Combs said.
The event hosted by the T. J. Samson Community Mission Foundation begins at 11:30 a.m. and includes a lunch, a program of speakers and a silent auction, according to Combs.
In addition to telling his mother’s story, Glass said, he will talk about the care he received at T.J. Samson Community Hospital in his battle with colon cancer.
“I could’ve gone anywhere to get my cancer treatment…but it never crossed my mind to go anywhere else,” Glass said. “I had complete confidence in T. J. and their ability to take care of me.”
Though, he said it may be hard on him to recount such an emotionally difficult story, he is happy to be able to share it with the public.
“My story is my mother’s story and this is a perfect way for me to honor and remember her,” Glass said. “I’m excited to do that.”
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CARE Power Hour is an event to celebrate cancer survivors, their families, caregivers, providers, and friends. The lavender ribbon is a general symbol of awareness for all cancers. It serves as a unifying symbol, promoting empathy and support for anyone affected by cancer regardless of the specific type. Proceeds from CARE Power Hour directly benefit Community Medical Care’s Breaking Barriers to Care Program, which provides assistance to cancer patients for the most common barriers to care such as transportation and supplemental nutrition. Register to attend and purchase tickets online at tjregionalhealth.org/carepowerhour.
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