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Sisters’ Journey Celebrates – Rhoda Gail Williams

Read her inspiring story (thanks www.sistersjourney.org)

It was one of the happiest times of my life. I had just celebrated my oldest daughter’s wedding. It was a proud Ma moment. I had felt some sharp pains in my left breast, but there was no time to focus on that. I was in Ma mode.

In February 2021, I scheduled a physical and a breast exam. To my surprise, she felt a small ball. Worried (but not worried), we scheduled a mammogram. I always had dense breasts, so I knew the pictures would not be clear. They did the mammogram and asked me to sit and wait for the doctor. That was a first. I began to feel anxious. The radiologist came in and asked me to schedule a biopsy. I literally felt faint, but my faith began to kick in and I started to process what was happening – still not concerned but following the doctor’s orders.

It was the day of the biopsy (April 2021) when I fell apart. I called my bestie, Paula, but could not get her on the phone. Then I called Bestie #2, Tracy, and cried profusely. Standing naked in the dressing room, I could not get my words together but to say, “I’m scared.” At that moment, I let doubt in. I accepted the report – breast cancer.                                                                                                                                         From that moment, I just told everyone I was fine. It wasn’t until the chemotherapy was scheduled that I told my kids. I feared there would be significant changes in my body and they would notice. So, I did a video chat and told them what was ahead. First there was concern for me and how I felt. Then there was silence. Finally, those jewels of mine went into spiritual warfare. We prayed and took communion every night for 21 days.

I took steroids for two weeks as a part of my treatment. They made me so sick, I had to stop. I was experiencing dehydration often and had to get fluids on occasion.

My oldest, Tasche, took me to all my labs, was on every call (sometimes called the doctors herself) and came to every chemo session except two. Tierra and John Jr. filled in the gap, but I know it was very difficult for them. Tasche was confirming my prescriptions, checking my meal plan, ordering breast pillows and blankets, giving instructions to her siblings, etc.                                                                                                   

She drove four hours every week to attend my appointments and meet with my team (surgeon, oncologist, radiologist). She was in charge of my medical journey. The others were in charge of my spiritual journey. I had an affirmation wall that showcased healing scriptures and a box of communion sets.

At every appointment, there was a noticeable change in my exam. Glory to God – after the 4th chemo infusion, they could no longer feel the ball. I continued for eight more infusions and then declined to continue. I agreed to go through with a lumpectomy and 20 rounds of radiation. In September 2022, there was no trace of disease in my body. In January 2023, I rang the bell.

I did not tell other family or friends what I was going through until after the surgery. I did not want to hear voices of  pity or negative  discussions. I did not want to have people call me more than they would normally call. I just wanted to get through it. I did talk to a therapist who suggested I allow my loved ones to be there to support me, but I felt that the extra attention that I would get would not be authentic.

I am so grateful that this organization exists to support women going through this journey or caring for a loved one that has.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

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WYBC celebrates Black History EVERYDAY!

Facts from www.blackfacts.com

November 1

1995 – South Africans voted in their first all-race local government elections, completing the destruction of the apartheid system.

1951 – Jet magazine founded

1945 – First issue of Ebony magazine published

November 2

1983 – President Ronald Reagan signs law designating the third Monday in January Martin Luther King Jr Day

1976 – Jimmy Carter, former governor of Georgia, elected president with strong support from Black voters

1930 – Haile Selassie crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia

November 3

1992 – Carol Mosely Braun, a Democrat from Illinois, becomes the 1st African American woman elected to the United States Senate.

1983 – Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the office of President of the US

1981 – Thurman L Milnet was elected mayor of Hartford CT, 1981

1868 – First Black elected to Congress John W. Menard, defeated a white candidate, 5,107 to 2,833, in an election in Louisiana’s Second Congressional District to fill an unexpired term in the Fortieth Congress.

November 4

1992 – Carol Moseley Braun is the 1st African American woman to be elected to the US Senate.

1988 – Bill and Camille Cosby gave an unprecedented gift of $20 million to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

1970 – Sean “Puffy” Combs Born

1750 – Birth of Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable. Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable was a black pioneer, trader and founder of the settlement that later became the city of Chicago.

November 5

1968 – Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American woman to be elected to the US Congress

1917 – U.S. Supreme Court decision (Buchanan v. Warley) struck down Louisville, Ky., ordinance which required Blacks and whites to live in separate residential areas.

November 6

1990 – Sharon Pratt Dixon (now Kelly) was elected mayor of Washington, D.C., making this a first for a woman of any race.

1973 – Coleman Young was elected mayor of Detroit, becoming one of the first two Black mayors of city’s with over a million citizens, 1973

1900 – James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson composed “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”

1860 – Abraham Lincoln elected president.

November 7

1991 – Rock legend Jimi Hendrix was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1989 – David Dinkins was elected first Black mayor of New York City

1955 – Supreme Court in Baltimore case banned segregation in public recreational facilities.

November 8

1966 – Edward W. Brooke elected first Black US Senator in 85 years (R-Mass)

1960 – Otis Smith becomes auditor general and the first Black politician to win a statewide election since reconstruction

November 9

1975 – Birthday of musician, Sisqo

1868 – Medical School at Howard University opens with eight students

1731 – Benjamin Banneker, inventor, mathematician, astronomer, and one of the planners of Federal City (now Washington DC), was born on this day.

November 10

1960 – Andrew Hatcher named associate press secretary to President-elect Kennedy.

1891 – Granville T Woods patented the electric railway

1780 – The African Union Society of Newport, Rhode Island, was the first attested Black mutual aid society.

November 11

1989 – The Civil rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL is dedicated.

1975 – Angola proclaimed independent.

1925 – Louis Armstrong recorded the first of Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings that influenced the direction of jazz

1890 – D McCree patented the portable fire escape

November 12

1977 – Ernest Nathan Morial was elected the first black mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana.

1863 – William Edmondson, a down home artist William Edmondson On this date we recall the birth of William Edmondson in 1863. He was an African American artist and the first black artist to achieve a one-man museum exhibition in America.

November 13

1985 – New York Mets pitcher, Dwight Gooden won the Cy Young Award making him the youngest pitcher ever to win this prestigous award.

1967 – Being elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio made Carl Stokes the first Black to be elected mayor of a major city

1949 – Whoopi Goldberg, nee Caryn Johnson, Academy Award winning actor,born

1839 – Liberty party, the first antislavery political party, organized at Warsaw, New York. Samuel Ringgold Ward and Henry Highland Garnet were among the earliest supporters of the new political departure.

November 14

1915 – Death of Booker T. Washington (59) educator and organizer, in Tuskegee, Alabama.

November 15

1990 – On this day, the US Golf Association bans racial & gender discrimination.

1979 – Nobel Prize in economics awarded to Professor Arthur Lewis of Princeton. He was the first Black cited in a category other than peace.

1950 – Signing with the Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern Amateur League on this day made Arthur Dorrington the first Black to play organized hockey.

November 16

2001 – Representing Nigeria, Agbani Darego was crowned Miss World on November 16, 2001. She is the first black African to win the title.

1967 – Actress Lisa Bonet was born on November 16, 1967 to a Jewish mother and a Black father. She is best known for her role on The Cosby Show.

1873 – Father of the Blues, WC Handy, born in Florence, AL

November 17

1980 – WHMM-TV in Washington, DC becomes the first African American broadcasting television station

1911 – Fraternity,Omega Psi Phi, founded on the campus of Howard University, 1911

November 18

1993 – Black and white leaders in South Africa approved the new democracy constitution that gave blacks the vote and ended white minority rule.

1956 – David Adkins “Sinbad” was born on November 18, 1956. As a child, he was the consummate jovial jokester, performing constantly for his three brothers and two sisters.

1900 – Howard Thurman, theologian and first black to hold a full time teaching position at Boston University

1787 – Abolitionist and orator, Sojourner Truth was born, 1787

November 19

1953 – Roy Campanella was named most valuable player of the National Baseball League for the second time, 1953

November 20

1976 – Three-time Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes is born in Siver Spring, Maryland. She will win an Olympic gold medal and two bronze medal. She will also win more national titles than any other gymnast-male or female.

1962 – President Kennedy issued executive order barring racial discrimination in federally financed housing.

1923 – Garrett Morgan invented and patented the traffic signal

1865 – Howard University was founded in Washington DC.

November 21

1933 – S.H. Love patents improved vending machine

1865 – Shaw University was founded in Raleigh, NC.

1654 – Richard Johnson, a free black, granted 100 acres of land in Northampton County for importing two persons.

November 22

1989 – Col Frederick D Gregory becomes the first African American to lead a space mission.

1930 – Elijah Muhammad founds the Nation of Islam in Detroit, 1930

1884 – The Philadelphia Tribune founded by Christopher J. Perry.

November 23

1980 – 1000 people from twenty five states gather in Philadelphia and form the National Black Independent Party, 1980

1907 – Alice Freeman Palmer Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina, founded by Charlotte Hawkins Brown, was renamed and incorporated as Palmer Memorial Institute.

November 24

1880 – Southern University established.

1868 – Composer and musician, Scott Joplin was born

November 25

2001 – Pop singer Melanie Thornton, 34, was killed in a jet crash in Switzerland.

1955 – Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in buses and waiting rooms involved in interstate travel.

1941 – Singer, Tina Turner was born, 1941

1841 – Thirty-five Amistad survivors returned to Africa

November 26

1970 – Death of B.O. Davis Sr. (93), first Black general, in Chicago.

1911 – William Henry Lewis was appointed assistant attorney general of the United States by President William Howard Taft, making him the first Black appointed to a sub-cabinet post.

1883 – Black rights and women’s right activist Sojourner Truth dies in her home in Battle Creek, Michigan.

November 27

1957 – Federal troops left Little Rock

1942 – Rock musician, Jimi Hendrix was born, 1942

1895 – The French novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas died.

November 28

1997- Former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young died on this day. He was 79 years old. Young became Detroit’s first Black mayor.

1961 – Ernie Davis became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.

1949 – Tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson dies in New York city.

1929 – Motown recording executive Berry Gordy, Jr. born in Detroit

November 29

1955 – Alice Childress becomes the first African American woman to receive an Obie Award for her play, “Trouble in Mind”.

1908 – Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and civil rights activist was born in New Haven

November 30

1966 – Huey Newton and Bobby Seale students at a California college create the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.

1924 – Shirley Chisholm was born on this day

1912 – Gordon Parks, filmmaker & photographer, was born

Facts from www.blackfacts.com