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When 2005 Relay for Life Honorary Co-chair Beverly Ellis
discovered, at the age of 50, that she had cancer, she knew
the possibility of an early death wasn't the toughest hurdle
she had to face; it was the telling of it to her husband and
children.
After all, she recalled hearing from her own mother the
ominous word "cancer" spoken in too-intimate association with
one she loved.
"Why did it have to be you?" she'd wailed in pain when a
doctor said her mother had but two years to live.
"Beverly, don't do this to me," her mother pled. "We'll be OK.
I'm no better than anyone else to have this."
Says Beverly, "I remembered those words again when I found out
about my cancer."
She had all afternoon to think about it after a midday visit
to her doctor on a day in which no one else was working at the
business where she was office manager.
She had skipped a year between pap smears; after all, the
doctor had bragged at her last physical about her good health:
her pap smear was normal, her weight was in check, she didn't
smoke. Yet, as soon as her examination was complete, she says,
"When I saw Dr. Guerra's face, I knew something was wrong. He
said he wanted me to go to Vanderbilt the next day."
Somehow, after returning to work following the provisional
diagnosis, she made it through the afternoon. "I didn't tell
anyone," she says. "At 5:00, I locked the door and fell
apart."
Life took a turn as Beverly realized how much she wanted from
life. Her daughters, Starla and Susie, each had two small
children.
"I wanted so much to see them grow up," she says.
She had been married just five years to Garland Ellis, and it
wrenched her heart to have to tell him she could have cancer
when he had lost his first wife to the disease. It was only
later, three years down the road to recovery, that she
embraced a different aspect of her new appreciation of life.
"Cancer has a way of saying, "If you want to do something
else, it's best to do it now," she shares.
She left behind the security of her 22-year career, most of
which was spent as office manager of the busy insurance
office, and struck out on her own. Proficient in sales from a
young age, she first secured a real estate license and later
accepted an offer from Web Maddox to expand his established
insurance business. In the new business, Beverly would be not
office manager but herself an insurance agent.
"I had always wanted to be an insurance agent," she says.
"Well, Maddox gave me that chance to open an office in
McKenzie. So I started it from scratch and it has grown into a
successful business."
She had learned long ago a basic truth; that, indeed,
approaching the circumstances of life in a positive way can
determine success or defeat: the adage that "attitude is
everything."
As a youth, she had left the familiarity of her one-room,
country schoolhouse for the rigors of a big city elementary
school in Michigan, where she repeated her first year of
school since the rural school hadn't included kindergarten.
When she returned to Tennessee two years later, the one-room
schoolhouse had made way to city schools, though smaller than
the one she had attended in the big city.
She honed her selling skills early, in grade school winning a
cuckoo clock for her prowess in selling garden seed.
"I walked miles and miles selling my garden seed," she smiles.
Farm life in the Stafford Store community--where she lived
with parents Hershel and Hazell and brother Faulton--granted
her the opportunity to earn her own money during summers spent
picking her own cotton and okra patches, funds used to buy her
clothes. When her own work was done, she hired out to help
neighbors bring in their harvests as well. But life was not
made of work alone. Summer vacations were spent in Memphis
where she visited her cousins, making the trip to the city by
bus.
"It was during Elvis' day," she tells, "and we would beg my
uncle to take us to Graceland. We would stay there as long as
he would let us; we wanted to get a glimpse of Elvis. One day
Elvis stopped the car and got out--what a moment!"
Later, her uncle, Albert Connell, bought the home behind
Graceland. The men eventually became friends and Albert, after
his retirement, also worked for Elvis.
"Elvis would rent the theater and skating rink and we would
stay up all night watching movies," Beverly says. "Elvis was
just a country boy and a great guy. He was part of my life
that was wonderful but, remember, I only got to go to Memphis
after I picked my okra patch!"
At 16, she won the title of Miss Greenfield wearing a borrowed
dress and, before graduating from Greenfield High School sixth
in her class, was voted most dependable.
She was introduced to the field of insurance when she went to
work for Bob McDonald once her youngest daughter was in
kindergarten.
"Bob was a good teacher," she says, "And W.A. Mitchell was
part of our office. He was one of my favorite people; always
happy."
Beverly smiles at Wailua Falls on the Hawaiian Island of
Kauai.
Most of the years spent in the periphery of
the insurance business, however, were spent as office manager
of Ted Coleman's State Farm Insurance agency. It was there she
was working when her next-day appointment was made for a
consultation at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (www.vicc.org.)
Beverly and Garland enjoy time in Hawaii. |
Her diagnosis in August 1994 was "stage IIB
squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix"--cervical cancer.
Beverly explains that of the four stages of cancer, IIb was
almost to the third stage, "which was not good." Because stage
IIb cancer is inoperable, having spread not only to the upper
two-thirds of the womb but also to tissues surrounding the
uterus, radiation was prescribed as treatment.
She did, however, undergo surgery to biopsy her lymph nodes in
an effort to determine if the cancer had spread. Hospitalized
for four days while awaiting the results, she says, "The pain
from the surgery was minor compared to the wait, but, the
morning of the third day, Dr. (David) Tait walked in smiling
and I knew it was not there."
Had cancer cells been detected in the lymph nodes, Beverly had
consented to an experimental procedure wherein, she says,
chemotherapy drugs would be injected directly into the glands.
"I had agreed to it if it would help someone else," she says.
Six weeks after surgery, radiation therapy began. Beverly had
36 radiation treatments and two implants.
"Dr. Michael Murray was my radiologist," she notes. "He
explained exactly what would take place. The implants were
like a tube with the radium inside that was placed directly on
the tumor."
Beverly was required to remain still for the first, 48 hour
implant and, a few weeks later, 24 hours for the second one.
During the high-powered treatments, no one could come into the
room.
Regular treatments took about 25 minutes each and, since she
arrived in Nashville at 8:00 a.m. for them, most days she went
back to work in the afternoons.
"The radiation treatments were not too bad," she shares. "But
being in the area of the stomach, some days were bad. Needless
to say, I know every bathroom available from McKenzie to
Nashville--and some woods," she adds, laughing. "I lost weight
and was very tired and very nauseated but just glad to be
alive."
Because Garland had just started a job in Ripley and couldn't
always accompany her to treatments, Beverly says, "I had so
many wonderful friends that carried me to Nashville when
Garland could not."
Christine Dickson was her mainstay for the trips. The two
would head out for Nashville at 5:00 in the morning.
"But we had a big time," laughs Beverly. "One time we got lost
in Centerville looking for a yard sale! She was truly a
blessing to me."
She muses, "Christine just had six bypasses. (Cancer is second
only to heart disease as the leading cause of death in the
United States.) She's doing great. I reminded her that at one
time I didn't know if I would be here or not. Christine and I
have both been lucky."
Beverly made the trip to Nashville with other friends, as
well. She begins listing names but stops, fearful she might
unintentionally leave out any one of those who remain so
important to her.
"So many meals, flowers and calls, so many prayer lists at so
many churches and from neighbors and friends," she intones.
"You realize how lucky you are even if you're not sure how
everything will turn out."
Her inspiration over ten years of survival has been whetted by
friends who have are longtime cancer survivors. The list she
shares is impressive: "Ruth Bradfield, over 20 years; Eleanor
Doub, 20 years; Ann Drewry, what a great inspiration; Diana
Stanfill,15 years; Mary Ellis, at age 82 had breast cancer and
is doing great; Barbara Connell, over 20 years.
"Joe Beasley was diagnosed with prostate cancer about seven
years ago," she continues. "He called me after every check to
tell me how he's doing. He's always happy and a great
inspiration. Shelba McCaslin and I have become good friends.
She's been battling some type of cancer. I pray for her every
day.
"So many people I have known and loved have had cancer," she
adds. "My dear cousin, Harley Belew, at age 52 died of a brain
tumor. He was so upset when I had mine and came to see me not
even knowing that two years later he would not survive."
Beverly stresses the importance of support for those with
cancer, citing the camaraderie that exists among those with
the disease. "You relate well to people who know what you are
experiencing," she explains. "When I hear of someone with
cancer, I'll call them and say, 'Look, if you need to talk,
call me! I'm still here!' With research cancer is not the
dreaded disease it once was. I look forward to a future
without it."
These days, Beverly never misses a yearly exam.
"I have been very fortunate," she says, offering her recipe
for success to others. "To survive cancer you have to:
1) have knowledge of the cancer and explore all the ways to
treat it;
2) you have to fight! Do not give up.
3) have faith first in God and second in your doctor;
4) mental state has a lot to do with healing; and
5) stay busy: do not dwell on dying, you might talk yourself
into it!"
She smiles confidently, "So here I am ten years later. I've
been so blessed that now I have three more grandchildren."
Daughter Starla McCallister and husband Bobby, in Benton,
Arkansas, have three children: Hanah, Rachel and Matthew.
Starla works in mental health and Bobby is an attorney and
judge, shares Beverly.
Her other daughter, Susan Motheral, lives in McKenzie with
husband Paul, a pharmacist at Super Drugs. They have two
children, Victoria and Abbey.
As for Beverly, she and Garland live on a farm where they
raise purebred Angus cattle. They recently held their annual
sale that draws hundreds of potential buyers. It's unclear,
however, whether they come for the cattle or for Garland's
homemade stew and hamburgers, both made from Angus beef.
"We served 12 gallons of stew and hundreds of hamburgers,"
Beverly relates enthusiastically. "People come from all over;
it's a great time!"
Known for her get up and go attitude, she adds, "Someone asked
me why I work all the time. I say I'm trying to outrun cancer!
I'd rather wear out than rust out."
She recalls the day Web Maddox called with the "great
opportunity" to open an office in McKenzie.
"When Web and I talked about starting the agency, I told him,
'There's something you need to know. I had cancer three years
ago and I'm not sure what the future holds.'
"He said, 'I'll take the chance on you.' It made me feel good,
so I have worked hard to make it work. Selling is the name of
my game; if I'm not selling I'm not happy!"
As an insurance agent, Beverly has won top honors (last year,
for instance, she was among the top 25 agents out of 16,000 in
life insurance) as well as becoming a world traveler, winning
trips to places like Italy, Hawaii, Spain.
"Two years ago on a trip to Spain," she shares, "I got up
early. It was dark and quiet, and I walked down to the
Mediterranean Sea."
Standing at the edge of the expanse with the water lapping at
her feet, she says, she felt so small as she looked across the
waters and cried, 'Thank you, God, for everything!'
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