THANKS TO GOD AND BEVERLY

Beverly Sills was never one of my favorite singers, but God used her in a dream as an example to me of how I was to triumph over breast cancer. Many years ago I woke from a good night’s sleep and immediately remembered a dream I had had that night. The dream was very vivid, not like many hazy dreams that we have. I wrote the dream in my journal and put it away for future reference. In the dream I saw a picture of Beverly Sills in which she was completely surrounded by yellow gladiolas and yellow roses. There was no dialogue in the dream, just the picture. Several day later I received one of my health magazines in the mail. I casually flipped through the pages of the magazine. To my shock and unbelief my eyes landed on the same picture of Beverly Sills that I saw in my dream. The only difference in the two pictures was the fact that in the magazine picture she was only surrounded by yellow gladiolas. Roses were not present in the magazine picture like they were in my dream. I hurriedly scanned the article and saw that she had overcome breast cancer. I put the article in my journal also. Several month later I discovered a lump in my right breast. The dream about Beverly Sills immediately popped into my mind. I previously had not completely read the article about her that accompanied the picture, but I now felt compelled to read the article in its entirety. I read in the article that her courage during her battle with breast cancer came from Rose Kennedy, who told Beverly that she had overcome many obstacles in life by putting her fist in the air and declaring, “I will not be defeated.” Rose Kennedy’s wisdom was an extra bonus for me. I felt that the roses were in the picture in my dream because God was personalizing the picture for me so that I would learn how to overcome the dreaded disease. My husband has always called me his Yellow Rose of Texas because yellow roses are my favorite flower. During the following weeks I regularly went to my journal to reread the article and look at the picture of Beverly, as well as read the description of my dream. I needed the extra boosts of faith because a tumor in my right lung had also been discovered. My friends were all praying for me and calling me to offer words of encouragement. On the appointed day of the surgery to remove the tumor from my lung, my husband and I arrived at the hospital a couple of hours earlier than we were scheduled to arrive. We couldn’t sleep, anyway, so we decided to arrive early. I was sent to a private hospital room to rest because we were too early. Almost immediately an attendant came with a gurney, informing me that that my surgery had been moved up to the first one of the day because two other surgeries had been cancelled. This was a strange happening, but it was good news to us. I was wheeled on the gurney into the pre-op room, and there was only one nurse in the room. When the gurney attendant left the room, the nurse immediately said to me, “Do you like roses?” I energetically replied, “ Yes,“ starting to cry at the awesomeness of the event, recalling my dream and the article about Beverly Sills and Rose Kennedy. The nurse left the pre-op room for a few minutes, then returned with the biggest yellow rose I had ever seen. She handed it to me, telling me that she had picked the bloom that morning, the first bloom from her bush. The bloom was the size of a salad plate, the most beautiful yellow rose I had ever seen. By this time I was sobbing with joy, but I managed to tell the nurse about the occurrences of the past few months. She immediately looked toward heaven and expressed thanksgiving to God for my healing. Words of praise and thanksgiving flooded the entire room from the two of us. After the lung operation, my joy rose to new heights when the pathologist returned with the report that the tumor in my lung was benign. The ensuring operation for the breast lumpectomy and months of radiation were a breeze because of the dream, the magazine article about Beverly and Rose, and the beautiful yellow rose from God that was handed to me by the nurse. Beverly has left this life and is now in heaven. She is walking among more beautiful flowers than we will ever see in the earth. I want to publicly thank her for the role she played in my miracle. I know she will relay my thanks to Rose Kennedy. They were used by God to infuse faith and courage into me at a time when it was necessary for me to have an overabundance of them. After sixteen years I continue to be cancer free, thanks to God and Beverly.
photo from richardnix@flickr.com