RELAY FOR LIFE: Keep the faith

By BRAD DICKERSON
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW May 09, 2008 05:14 pm

— Bill Simmons’ sleep was restless the first night after he was told he had 22 months to live.
“People asked me how I survived through the night,” he said. “I said, ‘Well, I turned my face into the pillow and I cried and prayed until I went to sleep.’”
In November, the 75-year-old Glasgow resident was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer. The tumor was stage four, making it inoperable and terminal.
“I thought I was in control of my life, basically, and now this is ... it’s almost like you’re blindsided when somebody tells you you’ve got 22 months to live,” Simmons said.
Even harder was having to tell his five children the news.
“Calling and telling them the news was a very traumatic experience for me,” he said. All five of his children live in Florida.
Since the diagnosis, however, Simmons’ outlook has changed. He has turned to his strong faith as a source of comfort and inspiration, leading him to the conclusion that his life won’t end as early as the doctors said.
“I don’t believe all that,” Simmons said. “I don’t think a doctor can tell you when you’re going to die because that’s in God’s hands.”
Faith in God, as well as chemotherapy treatments, have changed Simmons not only mentally, but physically.
“The lesions and tumors that were in my liver have shrunk significantly,” he said. “My energy level has grown in the last six, seven, eight weeks. At one time, I was just hard-pressed to go to a mailbox and come up the steps out here.”
Simmons stays active by fishing, cutting the grass and taking trips with Hallie, his wife of 58 years, to Florida to see their children and grandchildren.
Still, because of his treatments, travel is somewhat curtailed. That has not stopped Simmons from remaining close to his family.
“We’ve grown closer because we talk on the telephone just about every day, all five of my kids,” he said.
Simmons not only has the support of his immediate family, but also his Glasgow Baptist Church “family” and the friends and colleagues he amassed during 42 years working for the J.C. Penney Co.
All are praying for him.
“I’ve requested that their prayer be for the miracle of healing, but if we don’t get that miracle, whatever God has in store for me it’s going to be all right because he does not make mistakes,” Simmons said. “I’m not going to lay down and just roll over and die. I think God has a plan for me.”
Despite his faith in a longer life, Simmons is still making preparations in case the miracle of healing does not come to pass. He is making sure his finances and estate are in order. He has already picked out a cemetery plot and is writing plans for his funeral.
Simmons is also encouraging all males over the age of 50 to have a colonoscopy every five years. It had been six-and-a-half years since he had one prior to doctors finding the tumor.
He regrets not sticking to his every-five-years checkup, a decision he often thinks about.
“I just kept putting it off because something would come up,” Simmons said, adding that six of his brothers have had colonoscopies since his diagnosis. “I didn’t have any symptoms and had no idea there was anything wrong with me.”
No matter what the future holds, Simmons will continue to stay strong in his faith and his family, both of which have been an integral part of his life.
“I’ve had a rich life,” he said. “I have a good wife of 58 years. I have five wonderful children, all Christians, all married to Christian spouses. God has really blessed us.”

Relay for Life 2008 Schedule of Events
5 p.m. Cattleman’s Dinner,
Survivor Registration
6 p.m. Judging campsites
7 p.m. Opening Ceremony
8-10 p.m. Games and Entertainment
9:30 p.m. Light Luminaries
10 p.m. Luminaria Ceremony
11 p.m.-12 a.m. Games and Entertainment
12 a.m. Fight Back Ceremony
1-7 a.m. Games and Entertainment
7 a.m. Closing Ceremony

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