In Memory: Paula Townsend
Submitted by: Bethany
My mom, Paula Townsend was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer in September of 2016. She went to be with our Lord April 20th, 2018 at the age of 57.
This was something that was so hard for her and my family to accept because my mom always lived a healthy lifestyle. She worked out daily, ate healthy, and did everything possible to protect her body and keep herself healthy. There was no family history of this cancer, or any cancer at all that was passed on to her. It was completely random and completely unfair.
After her first major surgery, we discovered that it was not Ovarian Cancer, but diagnosed as Primary Peritoneal. It still starts the same as Ovarian, and it treated the same. My mom did every treatment and trial possible to try and cure the cancer. Through every failed chemo, a new one came along and gave us another opportunity to hope for a positive outcome.
For a while, I remember my mother being angry with God. It was almost like she felt God kept getting our hopes up with every new treatment. She prayed and prayed each time that the next one would work, but they never did. They only slowed the cancer from progressing as quickly as it already was. As I look back now, I have a new perspective. Instead of thinking that God kept letting us down with the treatments, maybe instead, it was his way of providing so many treatments to keep my mom around for as long as possible, and that in itself, was a blessing. Though many of the treatments had physical side effects, there were really only about two that had her feeling sick and exhausted all the time. But even through those, she lived. She lived her life fully; spending every moment surrounding herself with family and friends. That’s all she ever asked for. That is what made her truly and genuinely happy. It didn’t matter where she was, or what she was doing.
Her most cherished moments in life were the ones she spent loving and caring for other people, just as everyone did for her. My mother was the type of person that you thanked God for just knowing her. She made a lasting difference in each person’s life. She was the most amazing mother and wife. Her and my father had the type of marriage that I pray I one day, have too. They were each other’s absolute best friends. I am so blessed to have grown up with a mom like her, and so lucky that I was raised by the most incredible woman I will ever know. She will be so missed by us, and every single person, whose lives she touched.