The news of a terminal cancer diagnosis came as a shock to Jauwaun, a young mom who lost her own mother to cancer when she was a teen. Not wanting history to repeat itself, Jauwaun was faced with fear. Would she see her children grow up? Would they remember her? In the midst of terminal illness, she and her family found hope and community through Inheritance of Hope, which has brought them great comfort in trials.
An Unthinkable Diagnosis
When Jauwaun was just 19 years old, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Taking on the role of a caregiver as a young adult, she and her older brother helped take care of their mother, as well as their two little sisters. Two years later, their mother passed away and the family was devastated, but they still stuck together through the hard times. Her sisters “Grew up without our mother, you know, the older one, she of course remembers her. My youngest sister does not remember our mom.”
A little while after, Jauwaun moved out and added onto her family with her husband Jean and three kids Pierre, Jaylen, and Kayla. Things were going well for the family and Jauwaun began to slowly heal from the loss of her mother. She was then an accountant for a local business and an active member of her church.
Then the 2020 pandemic hit. While a hectic time for everyone, it was especially hectic for Jauwaun who was told that she had a large mass inside of her uterus. The next year, she had a hysterectomy to see if the procedure would protect her body from more serious conditions.
Since covid was still running rampant, her husband could not be inside the room with her during the follow up appointment. Jauwaun noted that the area “felt like a small walk-in closet, just enough space for two chairs.” To add insult to injury, doctors told her she had a rare and aggressive cancer that had a 50% five year survival rate that dropped to 13% if it metastasized.
Facing Fear and a New “Normal” in Terminal Illness
Upon hearing this news, Jauwaun panicked as she thought about how her family had “things to do. We don’t have time for this,” later adding that the thought of her children “Not remembering me or even the thought of history repeating itself was just devastating to me to have this diagnosis.”
Her son Pierre was about to go to college and needed help with paying for schooling and on top of that, Jauwaun was now the director of business operations at her job, so she needed to budget for that as well, or else the people there wouldn’t get paid. She stated that during this time “there was lots of pressure. Not from my job. They were very supportive. But the pressure is still there because I know what my responsibilities are and I know who’s impacted by it.”
It was hard juggling all those different responsibilities and even harder when she began chemo. While on chemo, she would deal with brutal rashes, hair loss and other difficult symptoms. Eventually, it all got to be too much and she would have to quit her job in 2022 to focus on her health.
While away from work, she found it easier to take care of herself with healthy foods and exercise. She wasn’t back to her full capacity, but she still attempted to stay consistent for both herself and her family, stating that she “did not want cancer to consume the lives of my family. So, when birthdays came, we still celebrated. I tried as much as possible for us to still travel and go places. Of course, I had to be mindful..I was not going to be on the plane for long periods of time, but we did road trips, you know, short drives, and we did as much as we could.”
Chemo still remained difficult for Jauwaun, so she took a break from it for a few weeks before deciding to stop the treatment altogether. Now looking for new treatment options, her medical team decided on giving her hormone therapy in 2023. The difference for Jauwaun was massive and lifted her mood as the new symptoms felt so much more manageable than the past chemo symptoms.
Finding Support and Community for the Whole Family
She was thankful that her medical team stepped in and gave her support during the rougher times of her treatment but she now wanted to prioritize looking for emotional resources to help the rest of her family cope with the diagnosis, since she knew first hand how it felt to deal with a parent struggling with terminal illness.
Though she was not able to find those resources when she was going through that process, the family was fortunate enough to stumble upon Inheritance of Hope’s St. Louis Legacy Retreat®. The family went and was impressed with the strong community there. Her children would write about all the things bothering them and healthily express their anger with the situation while her husband got to speak with other caregivers about their similar experiences with supporting a terminally ill loved one. For Jauwaun, the most important part of the retreat was the experience being forever immortalized in a group photo she put on the family room counter. This photo represents all the memories made that weekend and every time she passes by it, she smiles.
After the retreat, it set off a domino effect where Jauwaun gradually became more involved in the Inheritance of Hope community because “The love is real. It is not manufactured… and the genuineness that is there just makes you want to do more.”
Jauwaun is an active participant in Inheritance of Hope’s Hope@Home™ Groups—online weekly support groups from the comfort of home— including Public Reading of Scripture, which discusses scripture and current events happening in the members’ lives, and the Friday Gatherings group—a time of Bible study, prayer and worship with other members of the Inheritance of Hope community. These activities have helped her stay in the present and remind her that she’s allowed to take it easy even with the stressful things happening in her life.
Finally, through Inheritance of Hope’s Legacy Video™ program, Jauwaun has been able to share memories, wisdom, and stories with her children that she wishes she could’ve received before her mother’s abrupt passing. She hopes her children will always keep these messages close regardless of what happens in the future.
Hear more of Jauwaun’s story on the Inheritance of Hope Podcast. Listen now >>
Kennedy Owens a Storytelling Intern at Inheritance of Hope. She is currently a sophomore at Florida Southern College with a major in advertising and public relations, and is an active participant on her school campus as the Event Coordinator for the Young Adults Self Advocates club and Brand Manager for the school’s radio station The Hiss. She enjoys all things writing-related and likes to serve her community the best she can.