"The minute I touched it, I knew," she says. "It hadn't been there before, and I just knew. So I took a deep breath and I called my primary physician and went in for a check. A couple of days later I got a phone call – they told me I'd been diagnosed with cancer." Victoria is a woman who is accustomed to being in control. She has owned and managed Mercantile, a very successful downtown boutique, for 30 years. She and her husband also are pilots – they own their own small plane – and Victoria is perfectly comfortable at the controls. This, however, was a new experience.
"Somehow, the word ‘cancer' has this powerful meaning, more than most words in our language," she says. "Your mind just starts reeling about your life, what you have and haven't done, and all the things you still want to do. A little bit of your mind thinks, is this a death sentence for me? Is this my wake-up call to the end of my life?"
Victoria asked her sister, Jenny, for help. Jenny had been treated successfully for breast cancer 15 years earlier. She agreed to accompany Victoria to her doctors' appointments.