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MARTHA'S LAST MILE
PENSACOLA- Each month we do a story about breast cancer called "Buddy Check Three".
Breast cancer patient Martha Russell has watched them for almost a year, thinking about contacting us to do a story on her, and last month she finally did.
Martha has stage four breast cancer... It has spread to most of her body.
She asked us to document her journey through the coming months.
Channel Three's Kathryn Daniel begins the last mile with Martha.
The first thing you notice about Martha Russell is her laugh.
She is irreverent, infectious. A mother, an author, an ordained minister, and she is dying.
Martha Russell "I might make it to Christmas, I might drop dead tomorrow, I don't know."
Martha was told last December that she had maybe a year and a half to live with treatment, six months to a year without.
Martha Russell; "To me that wasn't a long enough time to stay sick the whole time. I'd rather have some quality of life and fun than to just be sick the whole time."
So she gathered her large family for a weekend.
Martha Russell; "I said all of my goodbyes and we all did our weeping and wailing and I started getting better."
Her son moved in for a few months.
Martha Russell; "I guess I decided I wasn't dying right now. I said, son, go back home, get a job, mama's gonna live a little longer."
Martha's faith and humor soothe her heartache.
Martha Russell; "My daughter got married last month, and I want to see my grand baby, but she's not pregnant and I haven't figured out how to make that one happen you know."
As we get to know Martha in the coming weeks, we'll meet her family, learn about her medical choices, help her cross off her bucket list and watch as she puts her affairs in order.
Mostly she wants her now grown children to know that are the best part of her life and death.
Martha Russell; "I have loved them unashamedly for all these years, I've held nothing back. I love them completely, totally, honestly. So when this time came it wasn't like, oh my god, what am I gonna do. I need to do this and do this. If you live your life having done what you should do, when you get in a crisis, you won't panic."
Kathryn Daniel, Channel Three News.
We will chronicle how Martha and her family are dealing with her terminal illness each Monday, on Three In the Morning, for the next few weeks.
