England Flower and Gift Shop owners share nearly-identical stage four cancer diagnoses and recoveries
ENGLAND, Ark. – They say cancer doesn’t discriminate, and at one local flower shop in the small town of England, Arkansas, the two friendly faces who are likely the first to greet you have experienced that first hand.
At England Flowers and Gifts, it is hard not to be happy when you first walk in. Not much brings more joy than fresh flowers and happy faces, but Judy Richardson and Nancy Cagle have been through heartbreaking stories that are eerily similar.
This March will mark 10 years since Richardson, who owns the store, found out she had cancer. Not just any cancer, either. Stage four colon cancer. It was her very first colonoscopy.
“I just said, ‘Is it bad?’ and they just said, “We’ve got to get you to an oncologist,'” Richardson recalled. “I wondered… why me?”
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Little did she know, a few years later, her church friend would find out she had the same thing: stage four colon cancer.
Cagle eventually came to work at the flower shop with Richardson, where they came together to share their best and worst memories of the diagnoses.
“You don’t know if you’re going to live… you don’t know if you’re going to go,” Cagle said, looking back on her time facing cancer.
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But even more shocking than the two nearly identical diagnoses, were two miraculous recoveries by both women, who proved to be fighters.
Both went through multiple surgeries. Richardson underwent months of chemotherapy and radiation, while Cagle proved to no longer be a chemo candidate because of the massive heart attacks and strokes she endured in the process.
Following their recoveries, the two now work to keep a smile on everyone else’s faces, whether they simply need some flowers, or are coming in with hard stories, like many in England have.
“It’s not just cancer,” Richardson said. “If someone has troubles, we want to be involved on the good side.”
The two have to go back to get colonoscopies every year, which is a major source of anxiety for both of them. Though now, they have each other to lean on during those scary weeks.
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Most importantly, the two credit their faith for getting them through the scariest times of their lives.
“I would say without my faith and the prayers, I’m not so sure where I would be,” Cagle said.
Additionally, the small community of England got them through the misery during cancer, and the months following.
Richardson said people in town kept her shop open while she was out for treatment, and even paid her rent.
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