“She has more energy and more enthusiasm about life and helping people than I’ve ever met in anyone else,” said hospital employee, Peggey Patterson. Peggey and other staff members, volunteers, and patients think the world of Connie who is known for her ability to talk to anyone about anything.

She eases the nerves of waiting family members with small talk and her loud warm laugh, yet she is just as comfortable talking with a patient about a cancer diagnosis. For the latter conversation, Connie speaks from the heart.

Ten years ago, Connie was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I went down and told my husband I had cancer, and that’s the last I worried about it. Worry is what makes your cancer grow.” While Connie has gone through surgery, treatments, and a reoccurrence of cancer, she doesn’t waste time worrying about the disease. She’d much rather be spending her time helping other people. Simply put, “It’s just a joy to help people.”

Throughout Connie’s battle with breast cancer, she’s never slowed down. “Many days you knew she wasn’t feeling well, and we would try to help her out staff wise, but she never stopped. She just moved right through, and rarely missed coming to the hospital,” Peggey said.

The cancer, now in Connie’s bones, has disrupted her nerves. “I can only walk so far before I fall down,” Connie explained. What does that mean for Connie’s volunteer work? She does just as much as she had, but now she does it in a wheelchair. She laughs, “It goes fast!”

Connie has helped other cancer survivors in many ways. “If they want me to, I’ll go with them through all their sickness…all their treatments,” she said. But Connie’s biggest help to the hospital may be her attitude and her outlook. When asked what she’s learned from Connie, Nurse Sheri Willburn replied, “Not to give up. To keep going. To be strong.”

You’ve got to keep going no matter what happens to you, because that makes you alive. Maybe you can’t do it as fast, do all that you did before, but you still can do something and you better do it,” Connie said.