The cancerous lump in Angela's leg was just the thing she needed to get her to slow down and enjoy life's little pleasures. It's also the thing that brought love back into her life.
Angela's Story
"I found a lump in my leg a week after my 30th birthday, and I knew that it was not normal."
I had malignant fibrous histiocytoma, which is a soft tissue sarcoma. Only 5-6,000 people are diagnosed with it a year. It normally affects senior citizens or really young kids, and it is normally found in your limbs and muscle mass. Mine was in my left thigh.
"The same day that I found the lump I met the man of my dreams."
We were in Chicago at a legal tech conference. He was really bummed out because he wasn't around his friends for his 30th birthday. His mom told him on the phone, "You know, Matt, I wouldn't worry about that because you never know what God is going to bring in your life." I knew the moment I saw him that I was going to have a relationship with him. I didn't know where it was going to go, but that has never happened to me. Two weeks later he moved to Athens, Ga., and two weeks after that he flew me down there, and we really fell in love.
"He is either going to cut and run or be in it for the long haul."
When I got the diagnosis I called my mom, and she knew that I thought he was the one. It had only been 2 ½ months since we had been dating and this was a long distance relationship. She thought, "Let's see what this man is made of. He is either going to cut bait and run or he is going to be in it for the long haul."
When I called him, he said, "I am coming to you, babe." My mom was so worried and so glad that he said that.
"He slept in a wooden recliner for three days and held my hand."
He came in to town the day I had surgery to remove the cancer. That night my mom asked him if he wanted to come home and stay at our house and he said, "No, I would really like to stay with Angela in the hospital room. I appreciate your hospitality, but I want to be here." He held my hand all night and slept in this recliner that had cushions on the back and bottom, but it was made out of wood.
He left and my aunt Colleen stayed the last night with me. She griped all night long about how uncomfortable that chair was. Matt is from Minneapolis and he looks like a hockey player, and he never once said anything. I thought, "Holy cow, this man loves me."
"I call my scar my life line because it gave me my life back."
It gave me my life with Matt, my husband, the man of my dreams, and it made me follow my passion about being an actress. At that moment in time when cancer and death is staring at you, you don't realize what it has given to you. Once you survive that and you go down a path that you never thought in a million years, being 30 and a single mom, that you would be on, you really figure out what you are here to do, who is on your team, who loves you. I couldn't believe the people that stayed and loved me. Cancer gave me that -- that hope and reality of love and honesty and moving forward.
