Amy & Mary
The past few years had already been a tough run for these two pals.
for amy, the hits kept coming.
Soul Sisters: Amy (right) & Mary celebrated Independence Day at the Little Purple House, July 2021.
Meet Amy and Mary. Two dear friends that have been through it and then some. In the past few years, both have endured providing long, difficult, end of life care for their ill parents. One tiny silver lining through it all was that the timing of their shared experiences made their bond even stronger.
In 2020, while still grieving their heart-breaking losses, the pandemic was upon us, along with all of the sadness and stress that came with it. Both Mary, a teacher and special needs advocate, and Amy, a therapist for kids in treatment at a residential psychiatric hospital, felt the strain of juggling an emotional overload.
For Amy, the hits kept coming. After a routine mammogram in April 2021, she got devastating news: triple negative breast cancer, or as she says, “the kind you really, really don’t want.” Mary was among the first to know and instantly devoted herself to her friend.
They say life can turn on a dime. For Amy, the head-spinning speed at which everything changed seemed even faster than that. Whatever she thought the year ahead might look like vanished in an instant, and was replaced with the fight for her life. With summer vacation plans—actually, ALL plans—upended for the foreseeable future and a hellish journey for survival ahead, she desperately needed a bright spot on the horizon. “Half the time I’m not even sure what day it is, there is just so much coming at me so quickly,” she said. “And in the rare moments I can find to just breathe for a second, I feel like I’m missing everything. It’s hard to even process what is happening.”
So, after enduring the first 7 of 16 rounds of chemo, these amigos busted out of a treament session and high-tailed it straight to the Little Purple House for a fantastic, Fourth of July at the coast together. The two had a wonderful time away from all too familiar places, enjoying the freedom that only comes from being somewhere else. They shared their fabulous respite getaway album with us (below). We’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…
“To be fair, my wardrobe had a woefully underdevelpoed hat section before cancer. I think the “Goober” gem we nabbed in Mt. Airy on the way down really brings out my eyes.”
“Amy and I were able to step away from the daily grind of her disease and be our normal and silly selves. No one knew who we were so we could let our freak flag fly. Oh it felt so good after all the seriousness of the past 3-4 years for us. Neither of us have laughed so hard in a long time. ”
Short getaways have been linked to better health outcomes for both patients and caregivers. Whether a coincidence or correlation in Amy’s particular case, we cannot say for certain- but the numbers don’t lie. Amy recently shared with us that her best bloodwork results so far came after the time she spent at the Little Purple House. We think salt water may have had something to do with it.
