Tiffany Layne Somerville stands in Span Tech in Glasgow.
By WILL PERKINS
GlasgowNews1
Editor’s Note: In the weeks leading up to the CARE Power Hour Luncheon, GlasgowNews1 is sharing the stories of survivors who show the strength, hope, and impact behind this annual event. This is the first story in the series.
Tiffany Somerville was alone and driving back home from her doctor. She had gone in with just a minor complication, but left with the words no one wants to hear or tell their loved ones.
This could be cancer.
Before leaving the parking lot, she called her husband and told him the news. Then on her way home, she experienced a special moment. A sign.
“It had rained and poured all the way home,” she said. “And I got on the Cumberland Parkway — it went clear and there was this giant rainbow and I thought: ‘OK, He’s got some control. This is going to be a journey. But it’s going to be a good journey.’”
When Tiffany got home, she was able to speak directly to her husband.
“I said, ‘Look, this is a “might.” We don’t even know if this is what it is. So let’s not stress too much until we actually know.’”
That was in May of 2024, a week before her biopsy. And then two days later, Tiffany sat in the Barren County High School gymnasium for her daughter’s graduation.
“It was just kind of rough,” she said. “It’s one of the dark times of the journey because you just don’t know what’s going to happen.
“When you hear ‘cancer,’ you just think — I’m going to die.”
Tiffany’s oldest daughter was graduating, and all she could think about was if she was going to make it to the next one.
“That was a tough point for me,” she said.
The next Tuesday, Tiffany was on a beach in Florida. Her sister had invited her last-minute due to a friend’s cancelation.
“So I was sitting on the beach down in the chairs and my sister came down. She said, ‘Your phone is blowing up.’
“So I got the phone,” Tiffany said. “I looked at it. It was my doctor from Nashville.”
She sat back in the beach chair and called her doctor.
“She proceeds to tell me that I have cancer. And they believe it’s stage three.”
Tiffany got off the phone and began to break down. After talking it through with her sister and her sister’s friends — who were all very supportive — she heard another voice.
“Honey,” a woman said. She was sitting in another beach chair in Tiffany’s row.
“You’re gonna be just fine,” the woman said.
She went on to tell Tiffany that a year ago, she had gotten the exact same diagnosis. Stage-three endometrial cancer.
“I’m just fine,” the woman said. “You’re gonna be fine.”
Tiffany said this moment really strengthened her faith to fight on her journey with cancer. Especially when the woman said they randomly decided to stay an extra day. Enough time for this moment.
It was meant to be.
“God’s got me,” Tiffany said. “If he can put somebody on the beach right beside me, I’m like: ‘I’ll be fine. This is gonna be OK.’”
Tiffany had surgery within 10 days and scheduled chemotherapy after that.
Two years later is a different story.
“I’m doing great,” Tiffany said with a huge smile while sitting in her office at Span Tech. “They haven’t technically deemed me in remission, but I’ve had clear scans for the last 14 months.”
Tiffany said her journey has been blessed with faith, family, friends and all of her other “villages.”
“They are wonderful. They loved on me and took care of me and they took care of my family,” she said. “Everybody’s journey is different. I’m lucky my journey is coming out on a good side. Not everybody’s ends that way.
“But I had to make a choice to look for blessings, and when I started looking for blessings, they were just overwhelming. I mean, people blessed me left and right.”
Tiffany said no matter how bad her days got, there was always a blessing to be found — whether it was a stranger sitting on a beach chair, or a ray of sunshine on your journey home.
The CARE Power Hour Luncheon, presented in memory of Geraldine Flowers Glass, will be held Friday, July 24, 2026, at 11:30 a.m. at the T.J. Health Pavilion Community Center. Proceeds from the event benefit Community Medical Care’s Breaking Barriers to Care program, helping local cancer patients with transportation to treatments, nutritional support, mastectomy supplies, wigs, head coverings, and other resources that ease the burden during their fight. This year’s luncheon will feature keynote speaker Tiffany Layne Somerville. Tickets are $50 and are available at tjregionalhealth.org/carepowerhour.
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