In 2008, Celebrating Women keynote speaker Kelly Corrigan posted a video of herself reading her “Transcending” essay on YouTube.
Women began forwarding the video to friends, and it has been watched nearly 5 million times. Celebrating Women chairman Randi Halsell was one of those touched by the heartfelt tribute to the ways women hold each other together.
“After seeing Kelly’s video, I immediately wanted to meet her and hear more about her story ... a young mother fighting breast cancer, much like I did in 1985,” Randi said.
Kelly closed the essay by saying, “We’ll rally around and hold each other up, and it won’t be nearly enough, but it will help the time pass just a hair faster than it would have otherwise. We will wait patiently and lovingly for that first laugh after the loss. When it comes, and it will come, we will cry as we howl, as we clutch, as we circle. We will transcend, ladies. Because we did all this, in that worst moment, we will transcend.”
To see the video and learn more about Celebrating Women, please visit www.celebratingwomen2009.org.
Following are excerpts from Kelly’s book about her experience with breast cancer:
“As for my hair, I woke up on Friday with a hundred hairs on my pillow and over the course of the day, pulled more out by the handful. So with our daughters, Georgia and Claire at my feet, we went out back and shaved my head. Edward assures me that my noggin is a wonder of symmetry and beauty but all the same, you might want to prepare your children.”
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“Six hours after my lumpectomy, I wake up in a curtained space. Dr. Patel reads notes from a chart. ‘They took quite a lot of tissue. And it looks like they took seven lymph nodes, all clean on frozen dissection.’ Later, my husband, Edward, breaks through the curtain. He’s wearing his Morse College sweatshirt and some old jeans, and all that joy and relief make him look about 20. The sight of him opens my every emotional pore, and all that pre-op anxiety comes oozing out of me. ‘Aw, Kel, don’t cry. It’s over, baby. It’s over,’ he says, squeezing my hand.”