Most have us have either been affected or know some one whose been impacted by breast cancer. It is a brutal disease.
One family that found beauty in that battle.
Part of the story happens at the Methodist Estabrook Cancer Center in Omaha. The other part takes place in Oakland, Nebraska, more than an hour away from the city. Oakland is a small town, with a population of just 1,244.
"That's what cool about a small town," says Sue Beckner, the town's florist. "You hate it because everything thinks they know your business, but when you need support there's no better place."
Six people in that small town of 1,244 are the Bousquet family. Dad Brad and mom Alissa, and their four children needed that support.
Since December, the family's second living room chair has been in the Estabrook Cancer setting. Every three weeks Alissa spent hours sitting here, getting fluids and chemotherapy. She has also undergone three surgeries, and has more to come. Thursday marked a big milestone, Alissa's the last chemo treatment. Brad wanted to celebrate with flowers. But one bouquet didn't seem appropriate.
He had an idea, and conspired with Beckner. They'd ask friends to pay ten dollars for a rose, that would go to Alissa. The money, would go to cancer research.
"I told my wholesaler I wanted to order hundreds of roses. I told him what we were doing, and he was like, 'how big is your town'?"
"The challenge was, trying to reach as many people as possible without social media, because {Alissa} is a Facebook person. So I wrote just one text, a really long text. It was probably obnoxious for people to read. I sent that to twenty friends and they sent it to twenty friends."
Then the surprise. Thursday, basket after basket, five hundred flowers were delivered to Alissa. The video has been viewed on Facebook thousands of times.
"Holy moly!" Alissa exclaims over and over as basket after basket arrives.
The Bousquets, hoping to pay it forward, gave out all those bouquets to other patients, and the staff in the cancer center. To date, more than $4500 has been donated to the Susan G. Komen foundation in Alissa's name.
"The giving is better than the receiving a hundred percent on that one," she said.
Alissa Bousquet's battle is not completely over, she has at least two more surgeries to go. But another thing not done- the support from a small town. It's just started to blossom.
To donate to Susan G. Komen, visit komennebraska.org.
