Putting a Face Upon Single Mom's Battling Aggressive Cancers!

Sometimes we are given an opportunity to represent pro-bono clients upon an area of the law far and away from our chosen comfort zone.  Having focused my practice entirely upon construction law for the past 35 years, that opportunity found me back in 2006 when I began drafting wills for cancer patients. And I was in many ways the least likely candidate to take on such a task. During law school, I focused upon commercial law, and avoided the study of trust and estates like the plague. When studying for the bar, I skipped the wills class because it had no relevance to my chosen career path. During my first 18 years of law practice I never touched a will, not even my own. All this changed for the better some seventeen years ago.

In 2006, Haley Schwartz of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society enlisted the assistance of my construction team (myself, my former paralegal Bob McKemie, and his wife, my current paralegal Tamela McKemie) to draft wills for patients with extremely aggressive forms of cancer, including inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC.  Haley gave my team a crash course in drafting wills, interacting with the critically ill, and the aggressive cancers that were killing so many young women.  Such aggressive cancers are often hard to detect making them even more difficult to treat. IBC, for example, is not manifested by a breast lump and is often not detectable by a mammogram. Back 20 years ago, IBC was often undiagnosed, mis-diagnosed, or otherwise went undetected until metastasis had spread the cancer into the skin, lymph nodes, or other remote areas. Tragically, the mortality rate amongst those with these aggressive breast cancers was very high, and death often followed within months of diagnosis, not years.

Although black women generally have a lower incidence of breast cancer, they fall victim to these aggressive cancers at a rate 3 to 4 times greater than white women of the same age and risk group. The typical client with whom we interacted was approximately 40 years old, a single mom gainfully employed, but had not visited a doctor for three or more years. Most simply underestimated the risks, some did not have health insurance, and still others were terrified of doctors, hospitals and the unknowns. The lack of timely detection made these aggressive breast cancers particularly pernicious killers of young black women.

The first patient we assisted, Ms. B, was a single black mother in her early 40s and the sole provider for Little Miss B, a grade school student. Ms. B was in the prime of her life.  She was a college graduate, played Division I basketball in North Carolina, and had enjoyed a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. She had a great job at a Fortune 100 company and was climbing the corporate ladder as a rising star.  Unfortunately, Ms. B was diagnosed with IBC.  Her life changed forever.  

By the time we met Ms. B, she had already undergone a massive mastectomy, endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy and was undergoing continuing radiation treatments. She had lost her job, lost her hair, and was sharing a mattress with Little Miss B. on the floor of a low rent apartment in SW Atlanta.  The aggressive cancers and treatments had ravaged Ms. B's energy level, but she continued to shower a mother's love and affection upon Little Miss B. It was clear, Ms. B no longer feared hospitals, doctors, needles, radiation or even death itself. Her only remaining fear was what would happen to Little Miss B if and when the aggressive cancers took away her mother and sole caregiver.

Our immediate goal was to ensure a safe and secure future for Little Miss B so her mother could focus upon fighting the aggressive cancers. We discovered Ms. B had no living adult blood relatives, other than an estranged sister with whom she had not spoken in many years. While Ms. B had identified a core group of devoted friends to provide a safe and secure home for her daughter, she wanted her estranged sister to have a role in raising Little Miss B. We also discovered Ms. B was terrified that the biological father of Little Miss B who had gone missing physically, financially and emotionally before his daughter's birth would return just long enough to pillage Little Miss B's inheritance. Although Ms. B had very few material things, she had maintained a life insurance policy in the mid six figures that named Little Miss B as the sole beneficiary and could easily secure Little Miss B's financial future. Unless and until she was assured Little Miss B had a safe and secure future, Ms. B refused to focus upon herself and her aggressive cancers.

After we understood Ms. B's fears, we established a trust to protect Little Miss B's inheritance and appointed a team of guardians to provide Little Miss B with sanctuary in the likely event her biological father remained missing. We also assisted in reuniting Ms. B with her estranged sister who was unaware Ms. B was afflicted by these aggressive cancers and readily accepted a role in raising Little Miss B. Having taken the necessary measures to secure Little Miss B's future, Ms. B focused her efforts upon beating the aggressive cancers.  In a small way, our efforts helped give Ms. B additional time during which she could continue to shower a mother's love and affection upon Little Miss B.

We are sometimes given the opportunity to do good deeds for folks in need, such as Ms. B, and are sometimes rewarded with valuable life lessons in return. Ms. B taught us the importance of maintaining the utmost dignity, grace and courage in the face of overwhelming adversity. If courage has a face, I would name it Ms. B for having faced down the pernicious killer within her own body. Ms. B also showed us there are no bounds to the incredible bond between mother and child. Rather than wallowing in self-pity, Ms. B displayed absolute selflessness, focusing her energy and concern entirely upon the safety and security of Little Miss B above herself. Finally, Ms. B reminded us not to sweat the small stuff. Whatever day-to-day concerns we view as pressing and critical are trivial in comparison to the concerns confronting the Ms. B's of the world. 

While we started drafting estate documents for cancer patients, over the years we have assisted hundreds of other pro-bono clients battling serious medical conditions including AIDS, ALS, Alzheimer's, COPD, HIV, Stroke, TB, and most recently COVID. Perhaps the study of trusts and estates during law school might not have been such a bad thing after all. And practicing an area of the law on a Pro-Bono basis far and away from my chosen comfort zone is an opportunity I am glad not to have missed.