Trudy Vickers knows to give credit where credit is due – “to the man upstairs.”
The 71-year-old has beaten cancer not once, but twice, and she said “the Lord isn’t finished with me yet.”
Her first battle was with breast cancer in December 1995.
“In August, I had my yearly mammogram, and at the end of December they found a 2 centimeter tumor in my lymph nodes,” she said. “They cut the tumor out and some of the lymph nodes in my breast, I had chemo and radiation. It took me most of 1996 to take the treatments.”
She’s quick to tell anyone that the Lord not only blessed her in overcoming the first battle with cancer, but He did it again in 2008.
In fact, one might say she’s a “walking miracle.”
Vickers said she started feeling “yucky” in 2008, but said she blamed it on going to the nursing home with her husband, Gordon, who is the senior citizen minister at the First Baptist Church.
As it turns out, cancer struck again, but that wasn’t her only problem.
Doctors found seven different ailments, which included colon cancer, a viral infection and a heart attack and she didn’t even know about.
“Thankfully, the Lord put me where I needed to be,” she said.
Vickers said one of her physicians told her he didn’t think she’d make it, but she said God had another plan for her life.
Overcoming all of those ailments has brought Vickers closer in her walk with the Lord, and she said she’s hasn’t been depressed.
“God had his hands on me,” she said. “He has helped me through it all. I am blessed, totally, truly blessed. My heavenly father is caring, loving and I praise him. I never let myself get depressed. I go and watch the birds when I need to. I’m a happy person. There is too much in life to get down and not appreciate.”
At her most recent visit to her doctor, he said she didn’t have to come back for a follow up for three years.
“I praise and thank him for every day he’s given me,” she said. “A lot of ladies don’t like to tell their age, but I don’t mind. I’m just happy to be here.”