The Villages - October 2020 - 11

It's not who she is - cancer is just something that
happened to her, Rita Boehm said.
Her diagnosis came as most do, with a jolt and a cloud of
fear. Still, Rita remained hopeful.
"I never thought for a minute it would shorten my life,"
she said.
After a mammogram and a series of tests, she got the call
at the end of September 2018.
"I'll never forget it," she said. "I'd been having routine
mammograms for years but this one showed some
problematic cells."
After a series of tests, a biopsy and an MRI, her oncologist
said it was breast cancer.
"It was the one call you never want to get, nor do you
want to get it on a Friday afternoon because there's not a
whole lot you can do," she said.
Like many newly diagnosed women, Rita dove into
research, hoping to find answers to her unending questions.
But information can be a double-edged sword.
"There's so much I've learned that I wish I hadn't
learned, including that there are many types of breast
cancer," she said.
Her cancer was the triple-negative type, which accounts
for about 10-15 percent of all breast cancers and is
aggressive. It grows and spreads quickly.
"I had six months of chemo, surgery then radiation,"
she said.
During her treatments, Rita gleaned comfort from
creative endeavors. But as an author, she found that writing
was too difficult a task.
"I was too vulnerable to focus inward," she said. Instead,
Rita turned her attention outward - to nature. With a
camera in hand, she shot photos of tranquil lakes, fiery
sunsets and birds with orange beaks poised in blue skies.
Riding her beloved horse, Kosi, was cathartic as well - a
potent, natural therapy.
"Another thing that helped me - meditation," she said.
"A friend recommended it because I need to be in charge and
being out of control is hard for me. It felt like I was doing
something."
Among the myriad meditation practices, spanning
cultures and centuries, she found a technique that seemed to
work for her.

"I'm not the kind of person who can empty my mind,"
she said. "This was a guided meditation, and I would do it
every day faithfully."
Visualizing positive outcomes, she was able to see her
desired reality unfold in the boundless plane of her mind.
"I began to concentrate on taking my issue, which I
discovered was fear, and locking it up in a trunk."
Rather than turning away from her worries or pretending
they didn't exist, Rita acknowledged her feelings, then
visualized herself packing it all away, releasing her burdens
and embracing a healthy body, free of the threat of cancer.
"I don't know whether it's a coincidence, but I handled
my chemo better than anyone I'd ever talked to," she said.
"Every three weeks for 12 weeks, I got a double cocktail of
really strong medication that makes most people sick. I was
very fortunate not to get sick."
She describes another meditation exercise, which seemed
beneficial at the time.
"Everybody has to do what makes sense to them," she
said. "It helped me to visualize being on a raft, leaving a
swamp with gators behind me, which was the cancer in
theory. On the other shore was everything I cared about,
my family, friends, my horse in green meadows. I had to get
through that difficult raft journey."
After surgery, Rita began writing again. Having traveled
through the murky waters of cancer, she is now cancerfree, happy, healthy, grateful and enjoying life on a sunnier
shore. In 2019, she entered two books in the Florida Writers
Association's Royal Palm Literary Awards competition,
achieving finalist status.
"I was ecstatic to walk across the stage at the awards
banquet in Orlando," she said. "What a difference a
year makes!"

EVERYBODY HAS TO DO WHAT MAKES SENSE TO THEM...IT HELPED ME TO
VISUALIZE BEING ON A RAFT, LEAVING A SWAMP WITH GATORS BEHIND
ME, WHICH WAS THE CANCER IN THEORY. ON THE OTHER SHORE WAS
EVERYTHING I CARED ABOUT, MY FAMILY, FRIENDS, MY HORSE IN GREEN
MEADOWS. I HAD TO GET THROUGH THAT DIFFICULT RAFT JOURNEY. - Rita Boehm
MAGAZINE

The Villages - October 2020

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