Show Navigation
Info

Meadow Hilley, 45, was diagnosed with stage three invasive ductal carcinoma at the age of 41. Her daughters, then just 3 and 5 years old, watched their mom experience the effects of chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and targeted medicine over the course of eighteen months. "When my hair grew back different, the girls asked me how long before I'd look like 'Old Mommy' again," she recalls. "Now they have come to accept that certain things about me will never be the same. The ordeal changed me," Meadow insists, “for the better. The encounter with my own mortality brought a sort of clarity, making it easier to chart a course forward while knowing that, at any moment, the wind and waves could carry us far adrift. Navigating cancer has taught me how to right the ship.” Here, Meadow is photographed in the Brewster meadow she considers her primal place. “This was the nexus of my childhood universe,” she says. "I come here to center myself." Told that the cause of her breast cancer was likely environmental, Meadow wonders, "What have we done to this place, and to ourselves?" For her, recovery is not just a personal journey, it is a collective responsibility.

Filename
Meadow_Hilley.jpg
Copyright
Julia Cumes
Image Size
5760x3840 / 11.1MB
Contained in galleries
Rise Above: Exploring the Many Faces of Breast Cancer on Cape Cod
Meadow Hilley, 45, was diagnosed with stage three invasive ductal carcinoma at the age of 41. Her daughters, then just 3 and 5 years old, watched their mom experience the effects of chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and targeted medicine over the course of eighteen months. "When my hair grew back different, the girls asked me how long before I'd look like 'Old Mommy' again," she recalls. "Now they have come to accept that certain things about me will never be the same. The ordeal changed me," Meadow insists, “for the better. The encounter with my own mortality brought a sort of clarity, making it easier to chart a course forward while knowing that, at any moment, the wind and waves could carry us far adrift. Navigating cancer has taught me how to right the ship.” Here, Meadow is photographed in the Brewster meadow she considers her primal place. “This was the nexus of my childhood universe,” she says. "I come here to center myself." Told that the cause of her breast cancer was likely environmental, Meadow wonders, "What have we done to this place, and to ourselves?" For her, recovery is not just a personal journey, it is a collective responsibility.