City employee hosts third Winter Garden Celebration of Life

For the second time in the three annual installments of the event, Winter Garden Recreation Program Specialist Sebrenia Brown hosted Winter Garden’s Celebration of Life Sunday night, Oct. 26, at the Jesse Brock Community Center.

This charity dinner cost attendees $20 each, split among several cancer patients Brown has kept tabs on throughout the year, she said.

“To me, there’s no particular reason for qualifying,” Brown said. “You still have bills to pay, and some may not have funds for treatment. If they don’t, a little will help. I always say a little is better than nothing.”

Brown started the event with a friend after she had received a diagnosis of stomach cancer in 2007, she said.

“I decided to host it after I did it with a friend,” Brown said. “She wanted me to join her team with breast cancer. I told her I would only join her team if she included other cancers. I would rather do it by myself, because I know there is more than one type of cancer.”

Last year, Brown helped three families: a set of twin girls with Down Syndrome and cancer, a mom and a son from one household, and another woman. They split about $1,500 from the proceeds of the event, Brown said.

The mother of the twins with cancer presented a 15-minute video at this year’s dinner, to go with a speech from Brown and time for meeting and greeting.

“Oakland Commissioner Joe McMullen and I were at the same table last year, and we were sobbing because this event was so moving,” said Bobby Olszewski, managing principal of Emerson Management and Consulting Group Inc.

This year’s recipients of the proceeds included a woman in remission for stomach cancer, a woman with breast cancer who has undergone a mastectomy and a woman with separate instances of brain, breast and a third type of cancer, Brown said.

Some candidates for funds from the event died before the event, she said.

Each honoree received a plaque, with different text for survivors and the deceased, Brown said. The survivor plaques said “A survivor who is an inspiration to all those who are fighting.” The other plaques said “A fighter who fought to the last round.”

Christina Linen, Jerry Hanks, Peggy Hardwick, H.M. Harp, Peggy Welch, Elese Hudson and Salle Bea Harp received survivor plaques. Mary Kemp, who died Oct. 10, and Irna James, who died Oct. 11, were commemorated with the other plaques.

Ernestine Collier, the woman who decorates the event, spread tablecloths and other decorations of varying colors on each table, representing many of the more than 200 types of cancer, Brown said.

“I have a chart with over 200 different types of cancer, each with a different color,” she said. “Some have different combinations of similar colors with different meanings. Anybody that has cancer, they have their own story they can tell.”

That includes Brown, whose color is periwinkle to represent stomach cancer. She went to the emergency room at Health Central Hospital per the recommendation of her primary care physician, she said.

“I was having just cramps, but my primary doctor had me go take biopsies,” Brown said. “When I took them, they determined I was almost at stage four of stomach cancer. No one ever knew it for about eight months. I got treatments on my break and then went back to work. Nobody knew until I got real sick that year. I actually drove myself to the hospital. One of my coworkers trailed me to the hospital.”

But since that day, Brown has tried to turn her experience into something positive for all those affected by any of the hundreds of cancers health professionals have identified.

“I’m doing awesome,” she said. “I go every 3-6 months for a checkup and a biopsy, and I’ve been going since 2007.”