February 4: Share Your Voice
by Nicole

This is a joyous, triumphant, and heartbreaking article inspired by a dear friend of mine. It’s not often you have a close friend or family member that receives a terminal health diagnosis. When it happens, it becomes eye opening, sad, scary, and a bag of emotions for the person who received the diagnosis and everyone who loves them. This blog post comes from my perspective, as a friend, who couldn’t be more proud and inspired by someone who shared her voice even in her darkest moments.

One day in an Atlanta suburb, I was looking for a cool independent coffee shop that would help inspire creativity and get my creative juices flowing. Luckily for me, one just opened down the street. This is where I met my dear friend Jenni. Jenni was an inspiring entrepreneur with intentions to diversify the coffee shop scene in the suburbs. After arriving from a college town with a ton of independent coffee shops, you can only imagine my excitement. Jenni and I became friends instantly. However, months later we ended up losing touch due to my move to the city.

One day my phone rings and Jenni is on the line. Jenni said, “why did we stop talking, this is silly”, to which I agreed! Jenni and I continued to talk and she informed me that she was in remission from cancer and had to close the coffee shop during treatment. At that moment my heart stopped beating. Everything she worked so hard for came crashing to a halt. I was speechless and terrified at the same time.

Jenni remembered conversations we had about cancer at her coffee shop. I grew up with a brother who had leukemia at a young age and Jenni wanted to have a honest conversation about it. Not a conversation where I tell her she is going to be okay but a conversation about how situations were handled, communicated, and how we tried to keep things as “normal" as possible for my brother.

Soon after this conversation, Jenni’s cancer came back and it was an extremely rare form. She had cancer in her salivary glands and it could spread quickly. It is a type of cancer they try to “manage”, rather than cure, with treatment and surgeries. On top of this news, she was having issues with her medical insurance and was accruing a significant amount of debt. It was devastating. Here was a person who at one point was striving to improve people's lives and now she was not only fighting for her life, but also for her financial security.

Eventually, Jenni had to have a very intrusive facial surgery. This surgery left part of her face paralyzed and disfigured. It greatly upset her when people would tell her they didn’t notice a difference in her appearance. She had to cope with what had happened and she didn’t want people to pity or ignore the situation. She decided that this was happening to her for some purpose. She would always tell me there has to be a bigger purpose, which is heartbreaking to hear as a friend. So, she went on a mission to figure this out. Part of this mission was to live life to the fullest and not be afraid of it. Go on hikes, discover music, travel, find love, and to just enjoy life.

Also, part of her mission was to reach out to various people with different platforms and raise awareness of what she was battling and that rare cancers do exist. She reached out to Lea Thau, a Peabody award-winning producer, (http://www.kcrw.com/people/lea-thau) from the Strangers podcast via Facebook and told her I have a story for you. Lea wrote her back, they talked, and became friends. Soon Lea and Jenni worked together to give Jenni a voice and a wonderful chance to raise awareness.

Awareness has to start from somewhere and Jenni pushed through her illness and days of feeling terrible to make this happen. As a friend, I look back and can’t believe it. She was so wise and so inspirational. Now, when I see popular cancer awareness events and campaigns, I can’t help but think there needs to be more awareness for the types of cancers that many people aren’t even aware of. We can do so much more to raise awareness and funds for research. Jenni inspired a change in my thinking and she did it with her love for life and passion for purpose.

We lost Jenni this past August but what I hope you take away from this article is that she lived and raised awareness by sharing her voice. Her voice will forever be remembered.

Jenni and Lea's podcasts are below.

http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/strangers/jenni-rowell-life-interrupted
http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/strangers/jenni-now
http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/strangers/jenni-remembered