Finding Strength

When doctors performed an emergency surgery on Linda Beaulieu, they found an unexpected cause for her abdominal pain — she had an inoperable case of appendiceal cancer. Given 3 to 6 months to live, Beaulieu was told by the doctors to go home to her family and expect to die. Upon leaving the hospital, Beaulieu was met with an outpouring of support from community members, acquaintances and strangers alike, who cooked for her, drove her to chemotherapy appointments and slept at her house in case she got sick during the night.

Beaulieu is the assistant editor for the Montgomery Herald, and when she returned to work shortly after returning from the hospital, she began to chronicle her battle with cancer in her personal opinion column. She received a lot of supportive responses to her articles, with readers telling her that her writing had helped loved ones battling cancer. Miraculously, Beaulieu survived her cancer; her doctor told her she was officially in remission this past February. It is an experience she says made her stronger and also much closer to the people in her community.