"Kathy's Garden" by Kathy Cole

Welcome to Still I Rise, where we celebrate women who have walked through the darkest seasons and found a way to bloom again. Today, we step into the garden of Kathy Cole — a woman whose life has always been rooted in soil, color, and connection. From planting vegetables with her dad to creating Friendship Gardens in every home she’s lived in, Kathy has always believed that growth is something we share.

But in 2020, Kathy’s world shifted into a harsh winter. For months, she couldn’t clear her throat. As a mammographer, she worried — worried she might be sick, worried her coughing would alarm her patients, and worried something deeper was wrong. One sleepless night, guided by instinct, she picked up a flashlight, shined it into her mouth… and saw the tumor that would change everything.

The diagnosis was staggering: spindle-cell/sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma, an extremely rare cancer more commonly found in males and almost never seen in adults. When she finally found a medical team who sort of knew how to treat it, they told her something unimaginable — that they could find only three cases like hers in the entire world.

What followed was a storm of surgeries, chemo, radiation, a tracheostomy, a feeding tube, and 126 days in the hospital during COVID — alone, afraid, and fighting for every breath. And yet, even in that deep winter, hope bloomed. A friend from Hawaii shared a dream of Kathy healed, wrapped with a scripture printed over a yellow dinner-plate dahlia — the flower her father once tended with pride. It became her sign that the garden wasn’t done with her yet.

With the unwavering love of her daughters, Morgan and Miranda, Kathy slowly began to root herself back into life, rebuilding her strength, her voice, and her spirit. And she learned this truth: if something isn’t growing where it is, you can move it… water it… tend it… and choose to bloom again.

This is Kathy’s Garden.
This is how she still rises.

#spindle-cell/sclerosing rhabdomyosarcoma