My Story
I want to tell you a bit of my story so that you will understand what drives my desire to assist you. Many years ago I received guidance that not only saved my life but enabled me to unlock hidden intelligence, potential, creativity and the “never give up” spirit which drives my passion to inspire and help you.
When I was in the 10th grade I had a teacher named Sharron Lykke. The year I took her class she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, received a mastectomy and was given 5 years to live. She was only 35 years old.
I was devastated. I loved her as a teacher and simply couldn’t believe something like this was happening. What inspired me was that instead of letting this prognosis destroy her she used it to become an illuminated teacher about life.
One morning, following her recovery, she returned to class. Her attitude was courageous and strong. She spoke honestly to all of us and told our class about her prognosis. She openly expressed the challenges she was facing as the cancer progressed, using her experience to teach us about truly living.
Most importantly, she gave the message, “If something hurts and you don’t know how to fix it, go find someone who can teach you the skills you need to make it better. And always keep growing as long as you are alive.”
It was what she did with her extraordinary challenge that changed my life and ultimately set me on a course to “pass it on.”
You see I faced many challenges growing up. I had been raised in a lower blue-collar family in Houston, Texas. My father was a “jack of all trades.” He could fix anything. My parents had opened a flooring company; which morphed into many names through the years but ultimately they sold carpet.
As self-employed people they got caught in the same rut that affects many others who work for themselves. They both worked very long hard hours. Mom left for work after breakfast and didn’t return home till after 7pm while Dad didn’t get home till after 11 most nights.
They didn’t have extra money for baby sitters so when we were old enough to take care of ourselves, we did. They used to call that the “latch key kid.” So in many ways I had to raise myself. As a teenager, I was lonely and depended heavily on friends.
There wasn’t a specific focus on our education so no one noticed my reading problems. I had an undiagnosed learning disability; I reached high school without the ability to read. I knew the words on the page but could not absorb them.
This led to barely passing grades and general hopelessness when it came to schooling. Test scores said I had an 85 IQ and that I could never make it in college. I was placed in slow learning classes. As a teenager I was depressed and getting into lots of trouble. I felt no hope for a bright future, as I did not know how to take on the impossible odds that loomed in front of me.
I began to visit with Ms Lykke outside of my regular class time and took two years of her Home and Family Living class. I wanted to be with her, to learn from her, to have her bravery because my own future seemed an insurmountable task that did not look so good.
A poignant memory: one day while I was sitting with her after class she said, “Donna, cancer is my teacher. Let all of these challenges be your teacher. Don’t let a test score define you. Don’t let anyone or anything define what you are capable of becoming. Only you know why you have come to this earth and it is up to you to bring this out.”
As time passed, the cancer advanced and I began visiting her in her home. She was a delicate framed woman with a shock of white curly hair that framed and illuminated her face much like an angel.
As she set across from me nestled in her blanket she talked about her 5-year-old son. “We can grow into many different people in this life: each building upon the one before. Just like my son will grow one day into a man.”
My heart felt pain as I saw her eyes drift off in a moment’s realization that she may not be here to see this ultimate transformation. She continued, “Donna, don’t settle, never, never settle. Be grateful for your life, your body and everything you have in your life because it is all temporary.”
Then she spoke the words that would take me years to understand, “Now that I have smiled on you, one day you are going to smile on many, many people. You are going to grow into a great oak and provide shelter for many people.”
As a 16-year-old I couldn’t fully comprehend then what I came to understand with time. But the light, the hope, energy, generosity and love she gave me while she was losing everything left me with an “eternal flame.” Like an Olympian who runs thousands of miles to pass the light to the next runner, she had given the torch to me.
After high school I enrolled in a junior college, where I learned to read and eventually received my first A and B defying the laws of gravity. It required lots of “innovative” thinking on my part because entrance exams continued to say that I could not go to college. And yet, never taking no for an answer, I found the way to build on college credits. I received tutoring throughout two degrees.
One of my teachers once said, “Donna, always remember that you are here to learn to love and grow as a soul. You have been given specific gifts and talents to experience the depth of you. Value them. Everyone and everything that happens in your life is there for your advancement. It is up to you to learn from the task at hand.”
Ms Lykke once told our class of a time when her husband found her looking in the mirror at her decimated body, he said, “you have become one of Picasso’s women.”
Indeed, she’d made her life a portrait that others could be inspired by even to this day. She died the year I graduated with a master’s degree in psychology and education. The spirit of what I learned from her throughout these years lives with me today and drives my desire to pass this on.
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