When Dorothy Snider talks about undergoing treatment for six different types of cancer over the last 45 years, she recalls friends who made a 10-hour, round-trip journey so she could leave the hospital and spend weekends with her three small children in 1977.
She tells of her parents and in-laws, who kept everything running at home in Broseley, Mo., while her husband, Ronnie, focused all of his attention on his wife.
Snider describes the community that came together one Christmas for a welcome home party, delivering baked goods and other items so she didn't have to worry.
Snider doesn't talk about the strength it took to face radiation treatments again and again, or the at least seven individual surgeries to remove different forms of cancer.
But then, she doesn't have to.
It's obvious to the people who know her, and those who hear her story.
"A positive attitude is the best medicine," says Snider, 71, who believes when she was at her worst, she saw her family and neighbors at their best.
Today, Snider is recovering from an illness that required two surgeries in 2017 at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The first was to perform an ileostomy surgery to resolve problems related to a blockage in her colon, the second was to reverse the surgery.
Neither were related to any of her previous cancer diagnosis.
Snider credits early detection and good doctors with preventing any of her illnesses from becoming more severe.
"I have always kept up with that," said Snider. "I've never had to take chemotherapy. I've always caught it early enough that radiation treatments took care of it."
Hodgkin lymphoma was the first cancer found by doctors, in 1973. Snider spent her son's second birthday in St. Louis, undergoing testing to confirm the blood disorder.
A radical hysterectomy and radiation treatments followed four years later in Columbia. Ron Jr. was 6, his sisters, Rhonda and Debbie, 11 and 10.
For almost three months, Snider and her husband spent the week in Columbia, leaving Friday mornings after her radiation treatments.
They stayed in Broseley with her parents, or at their home, until Monday mornings, when Snider went back to the hospital.
Sunday nights were the hardest, she said, when she knew she would leave her children again the next morning.
Two bouts of thyroid cancer required surgery in 1981 and 2007. Both of these could be treated in Cape Girardeau.
In between, there was surgery in Poplar Bluff for vulva cancer.
Then, doctors found skin cancer in 2008 and 2013. More surgery.
A lump was removed from Snider's breast in 2015 at SoutheastHealth in Cape Girardeau. Radiation treatment again.
After all of this, Snider says the ileostomy has been the most difficult. It happened at the same time as a series of blood pressure problems and dizzy spells that have limited some of the things she can do.
But Snider has her family again, to be caregiver or cheerleader, whatever she needs. Snider and her husband have six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
"I am blessed with a great husband, family and friends that are always ready to help," said Snider, who will celebrate her 54th wedding anniversary in September. "I haven't been able to drive for over a year, but Ronnie or one of the kids or grandkids take me anywhere I want to go.
"I am very blessed."