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Merecie Domagala agreed to be the Rock County Relay for Life 2015 Honorary Chairwoman only if her mother, Rita Sterrett, and father-in-law, Del Domagala, could be honored with her.
“Mom and I kind of did this battle together,” Merecie said about Rita. “I have taken her to most of her appointments.”
Rita said this is typical of her daughter, whom she describes as a “nurturer.”
“She’s really been my rock,” Rita said of Merecie. “She thinks ahead about what I might need. … She’s an inspiration to me. She’s a remarkable woman.”
As a mother, Rita said her daughter’s recurring cancer diagnoses have been difficult, because she can’t make the illness go away. “It just breaks my heart,” Rita said.
Rita, 71, was diagnosed with colon cancer in January 2012. After three cycles of chemotherapy and a series of radiation, she is now in remission, but the treatments left her with osteoporosis and asking, “How did I get old so fast?”
She said, “But I’m here. I’m happy for that.”
Merecie, 51, was diagnosed in November 2000 with ocular melanoma.
“The melanoma started on the back side of my left eye,” she said.
In June 2012 it showed up in her liver, this time as Stage 4 metastatic ocular melanoma.
And in April 2014 it appeared in her brain, and just last month, it reappeared in her lungs and liver.
“When you first hear the diagnosis, it’s like a sucker punch — you lose your breath,” she said. “Then, you take a deep breath.”
Merecie, the “nurturer,” said her mother’s cancer diagnosis was equally difficult to absorb.
“Hearing the news about yourself is one thing, but it is another to hear it about someone you love,” Merecie said.
“It’s almost a free fall … I knew the feelings she was feeling herself. There were decisions she’d have to make herself. … I couldn’t fix this, and that was hard.”
Del, 77, wasn’t so much battling cancer with Rita and Merecie, but he knows all too well what they were going through.
He was diagnosed in February 2002 with prostate cancer.
Twenty-five radiation treatments zapped the cancer, but they killed his bladder, too, and weakened his spine, leaving him with a urostomy and osteoporosis.
He, too, described Merecie as “remarkable.”
He said, “She’s fortunate to be here. It’s kinda scary every time it comes back.”
He, like Merecie and Rita, knows the power of positive thinking.
“I have good days, and I have days when I don’t dare leave the house,” Del said. “But I’ve had a good life. Eileen and I have been to 49 states — all but Hawaii.”
Rita said cancer has given her perspective.
“It’s important to have good friends. It’s important to keep family close. It’s important to have trust in the Lord and be thankful for every day,” she said.
“I’ve always felt that you can’t dwell on the negative; you have to dwell on what’s left.”
And if Del or Rita ever lose site of their blessings, Merecie isn’t far away to remind them.
“Every day is a gift,” she said. “None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, but we have today. … We need to all be living every day to its fullest.”
She said cancer, despite its horrors, can be a gift, “because you don’t leave anything unsaid. You say ‘I love you’ more often,” she said.
“I’ve gone on trips with my husband (Larry) that I would never have taken had it not been for cancer.”
Like her mother, Merecie draws strength from her faith.
“I have one foot planted firmly in hope and the other planted in reality,” she said.
“Without hope you have nothing, but I do understand the reality of it.
“There are miracles every day. I believe I got here because of a miracle, and you always have to have hope.”
Relay for Life is June 12
Merecie, as the 2015 Honorary Chairperson, will be the featured speaker at the Rock County Relay for Life Friday night in Luverne City Park.
The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a community supper, and opening ceremonies, including the survivors lap, are at 7 p.m.
See the half-page ad on page 8B for details.