VALDOSTA — Hortencia Deal says she was tending to one of the doctors at a physical therapy clinic in New Mexico, when she revealed to the physician that she had discovered a lump on her breast. Now, it was time for the caring physical therapy technician to entrust her life to the care of others.

“The Doctor told me, 'don't go anywhere after my treatment — I want to check you out right away,'” says Deal. “Sure enough, she stayed and she examined me right then and there.”

Deal was already sure that she had cancer, even before her consultation with her colleague. She had been performing self-checks for as long as she could remember and she had already developed a gift for spotting patterns and inconsistencies.

Meet Hortencia Deal, cancer warrior and loving mother.



Age 17

Mexican-born Hortencia Deal spent her formative years living in the central state of Zacatecas. She spent her days shooting marbles with neighborhood youth, sewing clothes for Barbie and playing with her family's assortment of livestock.

“I was doing all of the things that I needed to be doing, and some that I probably shouldn’t have – but life was easy,” says Deal. “I would use my mom's sewing equipment to sneak and knit Barbie clothes. And by the time I was eleven, I was sewing clothes for money.”

She has four brothers and four sisters. She says she’s the youngest of the bunch and experienced the most parental lenience out of the group — she got away with the most.

“We had chickens, pigs, ducks and, down the road from the house, we had horses and cows,” says Deal. “But since I was the youngest, I didn't have to tend to the horses that much – I just rode them.”

Today, she has three daughters and three great-granddaughters. Carla; Geneva (Jessie) and her daughter, Julian; Sarah (Scott) and daughters, Mia and Eva.

When she was 17, she finally got the opportunity to learn English by immersion. Deal says she was one of roughly 40 Spanish-speakers who attended English classes in El Paso, Texas.

“I started visiting the US in my teen years,” says Deal. “I would stay with my sister in El Paso for short periods. But every summer, I would beg my parents if this would be the time that I could finally take English classes.”

As her English skills improved, she spent more time north of the border. But drawing from her lifetime experience in needle work, she's stitched her experiences on both sides of the border into a cozy quilt that is both a thing of beauty and a narrative in itself.

As her battles against cancer heats up once again, her quilt gains more patches and it tells a deeper story.

“I'm not ready to give up – life is wonderful,” says Deal. “If you're sick, especially with a disease like cancer, you can't give in. Just improve yourself, little by little.”

And improving her metaphorical quilt is just what Deal has been doing. But one pattern stands out to her.

“There's just something about seventeens,” says Deal. “It's always the seventeenth of this, or the seventeenth of that.”



Sept.  17, 2003

Deal’s battle with breast cancer began in Alamogorda, New Mexico, a town with a population of roughly 41,000.

“I was just going through the motions, until I saw the oncologist,” says Deal. “I was like, ‘This is it. There has to be a battle now.’ I couldn't just give up and cry about it. I had my young kids and I had a lot to live for, just as I still have a lot to live for now almost ten years later.”

The lump was discovered through a self-check, says Deal. She says her monthly self-examination became a routine, but it also reinforced in her mind the seriousness of a bout against the disease.

“In a way, I guess I had prepared myself for it,” says Deal. “Finding that lump brought a lot of questions, but I had a lot of answers myself. I knew it was no hernia or pulled muscle. It was definitely a bump.”

Deal says her family and friends gave her strength to find the cancer. All of their prayers and support surged the frayed areas and, as a result, made her tight-knit family even closer.

“In a way, I think cancer has brought us closer together,” says Deal. “As bad as it sounds, I think it has.”

“Without God, there is nothing. I’m in debt to my family and myself. I don't just owe the fight to myself, I owe it to them. I want to see them grow.”

Deal says Alamogorda had no oncologists back in 2003, so she would have to make the four-hour, insurance mandated trek to Albuquerque when she began treatment the following month.

Whenever she surveyed her quilt, she says she could always find a bright spot.

“We had a car, but we didn't know how dependable it was,” says Deal. “There was somebody always willing to help.”



Nov. 17, 2003

With just 44 days left in 2003, 43-year-old Hortencia Deal began chemotherapy.

“I'm a really caring person,” says Deal. “Whenever anyone needs me, I’m there. So this really brought me down a notch, a few notches to be honest.”

And despite the slew of rough patches during treatment, there were also plenty of bright ones. Seeing her kids every day made her happy, she says, but one patch caught her eye.

“I don't know why, but she just looked like an angel,” says Deal. “I had seen her before at the hospital and I asked her what she was doing [here at my house]. She said she had heard about my condition and talked with her pastor about making a visit.”

Deal had been expecting someone else when the woman from the hospital stopped by for a visit. The door was unlocked, so, after a knock, the woman walked right in.

The two women talked about everything above and below the sun, she says, exchanging tear-jerker and life lesson. But before Deal's visitor left, the woman left a devotional book and envelope.

“She said to read through the books on the good days and told me to call to find out more about the church when I was better,” says Deal. “I had been there once or twice and they remembered us.”

When Deal discovered $4,000 inside of the envelope, she was blown away. She was only slightly acquainted with the visitor.

“Of course, I got on the phone and I was crying again,” says Deal. “Those are the times when you realize that you need to be alive, because a lot of people care for you.”

“Nana, do you want this?” asks Deal’s grand-daughter during the interview at a restaurant.

“No thanks,” says Deal as she politely turns down the appetizer and smiles. “See -- these are my happy moments. This is why I battle through the hard times.



Sept. 17, 2012

Deal needs happy moments. Because as brave as she is, there are some things that can rattle her.

“I tell you what, that one really scared me,” says Deal. “I don't know what I was expecting, but it scared me.”

Deals says her cancer had been in remission for about 8 years, but there was a chance that it has returned.

She was recently re-diagnosed, according to her daughter. But now a new diagnosis has presented Deal with a new challenge, bone cancer.

Deal says she started treatment promptly as she began trying to wrap her head around the thought of battling another cancer.

“I have fibromyalgia and I was hoping it was that,” says Deal. “But nope, I have bone cancer now. It’s affecting my spinal cord, hips, ribs, shoulders and sternum. Oh, and they’re still saying that I have breast cancer.”

Thank God for the radiation, she says.

“I started breathing again, opening my eyes again and walking around again,” says Deal. “The next round of chemo will be strong and that’s just what cancer needs. It needs to be kicked in the butt.”

As Deal battles two cancers, she’s been put on morphine and other pain prescriptions that have sidelined her from the roadways. She’s made a career out of caring for others, and her doctor’s recent prohibition on her driving makes that even harder to do now.

“My life is making sure my kids are okay,” says Deal. “Every now and then, I’ll change my grand-daughter’s diaper or take her to the doctor when her mother is away. I want to start driving again. Me not driving is like my arms not working.”

But despite the limitations that cancer has placed on Deal’s life, she still manages to do the things she loves with the people she loves. Today, Deal says she recently retrieved her quilting equipment from storage and re-embraced her craft.

She may have set quilting aside while she soldiered through the worst days of her treatment, but, in a way, she has always been quilting. She finds a way to blend the rough patches in her life with the good ones and create a multi-colored quilt that attests to the character of a woman who embraces life and lives it to the fullest.

“I am a cancer survivor, but I'm a fighter more than anything,” says Deal. “My advice to other women with cancer is to never give up. Keep fighting each day as if it's the first.”