Hello my DAISY LIST readers,
Beyond the Thriving and Beyond the Surviving, comes
“MAKING A DIFFERENCE”.
That’s what Hattie Smith is all about.
2019 TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER LUNCHEON
Of all the stories I’ve written about Thriving Survivor’s, I doubt I’ll ever have the same type of Inspirational connection I have with Hattie Smith.
Hattie Smith is different on so many levels all of which I won’t be able to list here. I’ll just give you some pin points of why I and so many others connect with Hattie.
My initial intent for writing about Thriving Survivor’s was to introduce individuals that might have a significant impact on others dealing with Cancer, TAZ or any other personal tsunami. Individuals that project hope and motivation based on their words, actions, good deeds etc.
I met Hattie years before I met TAZ. A mutual friend introduced us at a Cancer fundraiser. Then I didn’t run into her again for a couple of years. I believe I ran into Hattie and her sister Sylvia maybe a couple of times after our first encounter.
Here’s the Magic about this new connection. When I was first being treated for my cancer, the very first flowers I received were from Hattie and her sister Sylvia. I actually had to call my girlfriend that introduced us to verify who the flowers were from.
Those flowers came on one of my darkest hours. They arrived before anything from my family, relatives, close friends, regular friends, you name it. I literally sat down and cried to think that someone I barely knew could be so generous with their Love and concern for practically a complete stranger. From that point on, things have morphed into something short of miraculous.
By the way, that floral arrangement had a plant in it that I still have to this day. Anyone who knows me knows that in-it-self is a miracle.
Many months after that Hattie reached out to me for a “getting to know each other” lunch. At the time I don’t think I even knew she had battled cancer herself, it was pretty much a casual getting to know each other lunch. But as things progressed and we had additional lunch dates, we talked about many, many things.
By then I was recovering from my Journey with TAZ and I was struggling with getting my Blog off the ground, and I was having a problem finding a systems person that understood what it was I was trying to do.
Hattie made a suggestion and introduced me to her brother-in-law, Mark.
My life has never and will never be the same.
I’ll explain the whole Mark thing and the WEB site at another time, but this Post is about Hattie. Angel, friend, strong advocate, inspirational advisor, activist, positive instigator, you name it.
While I was on the mend with my own battle, Hattie discovered she had a re-occurrence of Breast Cancer. I thought I had handled my journey pretty good, people were using words like Brave and Bold to describe how they saw me.
Well I’m here to tell you, once I got to know Hattie, I got a completely new definition of BRAVE and BOLD.
When you first meet Hattie, you would never ever know she had struggled with cancer not once, but twice, as a matter of fact you would never pick up that she has struggled with ANYTHING. Her nature is so positive without any of the Pollyanna business.
She speaks in sometimes cryptic sentences that go right to the point of anything, but always and I mean always with a positive slant, regardless of the subject. She’s no nonsense but still fun, and I know plenty of people that are no nonsense that are NOT FUN!
She’s high energy and has laser focus when she wants to get things done.
Plus, she’s an Advocate for all. I’ve been to more fund raisers since meeting Hattie than I can count. As a matter of fact I’ve written Posts about a few of them.
Daisy List Post 2018-19 Breast Cancer Awareness
Hattie with Beth Dupree, MD – Founder & President of
Healing consciousness Foundation
You can tell Hattie has definitely made a conscious decision and effort to GIVE BACK.
This Post is timely because I just recently attended yet another fund raiser she was involved with at the Princeton BREAST CANCER RESOURCE CENTER in Princeton, NJ.
I had a few take always from this event, first of all, Hattie can fill a room. She gets those tickets sold and she participates in every aspect of the Event. My other take away was how effective she was as a speaker and part of the question and answer panel.
Although Hattie is widely known in many of the cancer fund raiser circles, what struck me, was the way she handled herself with the audience and her panel peers.
She was on a panel with 2 doctors and a PhD Candidate and she held her own. She gave her talk and answered Q’s with the same professionalism and assurance as the rest of them.
I guess what I’m trying to say about Hattie, so many Survivors talk about doing great things to give back, but sometimes it’s the small gestures that have the biggest impact.
Although Hattie is readily available for both big and small fund raisers, she still finds time to be an advocate to all who know her with meaningful small gestures.
I can’t begin to Thank Hattie enough for the impact she’s had on me both in big and small ways. If she has done that for me in such a small time frame, I can only imagine the impact she’s had on others over the years.
From all of us to YOU Hattie,
POST 2019-06