C A N C E R S U R V I V O R
Julie Temple
Cancer Waits For No Woman
By MARSHA BROWN
Julie Temple Didn’t Have
Time To ‘Mess,’ With
Cancer, But Who Does?
Julie Temple is a busy woman.
Last spring, she was working at a
frenzied pace, operating her own multifaceted
business that included event
planning and had just landed a job
orchestrating the biggest wedding of
her career. She definitely did not have
time for cancer.
“I’ve always been a busy kind of
person,” Temple said. “In my business
I did a little bit of everything for a few
families. I planned events, I organized, I
remodeled, I painted, and I decorated.”
She knew when she took-on the
function that she would be a bit
stretched while pulling together the
Cecil B. DeMille- caliber wedding
production, but she didn’t plan on
having serious health problems. Temple
had also taken on a big, albeit joyful
task.
A longtime friend who had passed
the point in her life when she was able
to manage all of her own affairs, but did
not want to move into an assisted living
center or a retirement home. Temple
was offered the job of taking care of her
friend. Temple stepped in. “I feel like it
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was my calling,” she said. “I wanted to
make sure that she could live out her
life, in her own home.”
In the new capacity, Temple took
her friend to appointments with doctor,
oversaw her household, made sure her
house was clean, took care of meals and,
generally made sure her bills were paid
and her checkbook was in order.
As Temple juggled all of her
responsibilities, was in the midst of
taking care of her friend and planning
the wedding of the century, she
suddenly found one more big item
had landed on her plate and it was
enormous.
Temple went home one evening, and
when she was preparing for bed, got
undressed and noticed a spot of blood
in one of the cups of her bra.
“I looked to see if had a mole or a
cyst and I found nothing,” Temple said.
“So the next day I was really busy and
forgot about it.” She forgot about the
whole thing, until it happened again.
Finally, she discovered where the blood
was coming from — her nipple. Temple
was at the home of her godchild who
had just had a baby. “I asked her if that
had ever happened to her,” Temple
said.
The younger woman’s response
was, “No and if it did, I’d be totally
freaked out.” Being a tech-savvy,
Millennial, the young woman turned
to Google. After a little research,
the younger woman advised her
godmother, “You need to see a doctor.”
Everything she found on line pointed to
the same place, cancer.
Temple’s answer was, “Maybe, when
I get this wedding behind me.” The
younger woman was shocked. “Who
puts that off?” The reaction of everyone
else was almost more frightening to
Temple than what her own body was
doing.
“Everyone seemed to be totally
freaked about this,” Temple said.
Temple definitely did not have time for
cancer. But there was another concern.
“We had great insurance through
my husband’s work,” Temple said,
adding that her husband worked in the
oil industry, but his job went away with
the most recent oil bust. He soon found
a new job but it didn’t pay near as well
and the benefits weren’t there.
Temple was always an independent,
generous woman who was used to
doing kind things for others, but rarely
did she let anyone do anything for her.
Temple found herself talking to
a friend, a breast cancer survivor
who told her about her health issue,
then asked her friend if she had ever
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