In Black America; Chocolate Heals: Life Is Sweet, with Marcia L. Williams

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is in Black America. They tested the tumor and that it indeed was positive, I did, they confirmed that it was breast cancer. I had to have an MRI later that day. I scheduled it for later that day and basically to find out the extent of the cancer. If it had spread, if it had metastasized, so they scheduled me for an MRI. So it was when I was in the MRI machine that night that of course I'd just been given a cancer diagnosis and I was trying to think of anything but the fact that the C-word had come to live with me. And so I was thinking about baking brownies. I was thinking about anything I could rather than the fact that I had just been given a cancer

diagnosis. So it was when I was in the tunnel that I thought, you know what, chocolate heels. Marcia Air Williams, author of Chocolate Heels, Life is Sweet. After discovering and being treated for breast cancer, Williams decided to help others who may be experiencing tough times. Having a love for baking was the perfect vehicle to get a message of hope to those in need. Determined to provide inspiration to others after her diagnosis, Williams has pledged to impact the people right in their own backyard. Other breast cancer survivors, their friends and families. Although her book, Chocolate Heels, the book that describes some of the experiences she went through, is also a guide for someone going through tough times. Whether you know someone who has lost the job, separated from a relationship or experiencing a health challenge, Chocolate Heels is the perfect bite you want to take. I'm Johnny El Hansen, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, Chocolate Heels,

Life is Sweet with Marcia Air Williams in Black America. I said, I have an idea. And she kind of looked at me like, oh my poor friend, she's had such a rough day. I don't know what kind of idea she had in the tunnel, you know, having this MRI. But I said, you know, chocolate heels. And so it was from that moment that I started thinking about not just me and what was going on for me, but doing something in a way that might be able to encourage and inspire others that were going through not just breast cancer, but tough times. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among African-American women. An estimated 27,000 new cases of breast cancer are expected to occur among African-American women in 2013. Among younger women under the age of 45, however, the mortality rate of breast cancer is higher in African-Americans than in whites. The medium age of diagnosis is 57 years for African-American women compared to 62 years for white women. Marcia Air Williams is a breast cancer survivor. In her book, Chocolate Hills,

Life Is Sweet, she describes seven factors that sustained her through the difficulties that tried to rob her for life and sanity. She is now determined to provide inspiration to others after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Williams has pledged to impact the people writing their own backyard, other cancer survivors, their families, and friends. Not only is Chocolate Hills a book, it's also a movement. Collaborating with independent publishers, she will promote motivational books and materials through fares, cancer awareness events, and collective distribution projects, with the focus on bringing attention to women's cancer and assisting patients to identify education resources. We implants to partner with growth and businesses through a variety of activities and media relations. A few years back, I was actually sitting at a car wash with my friend Renee and we were just kind of laughing as we were getting our cars washed and I kind of scratched like in the center, really in the center of my chest, and felt a lump. I almost said, Renee, feel this, but then I thought that could look really strange in the car wash. Somebody,

the woman reaching over to grab my chest, but it was a little odd and so I talked to my doctor about it. I had an appointment shortly after that, and basically when I went and had it checked, they said that it was breast cancer. But it was more than that. I mean, you were you were thinking positive, always, you know, nothing much going to tests, and then obviously you found that it was something to this lump. Absolutely. I mean, I didn't think anything of it because where it was located was like I said, almost in the center of my chest. And so I had never felt it doing, you know, the exam. No family history of. No family history. So there was no reason for me to think that it was anything based on the location and no family history. So I just didn't know what it was. And so, like I said, my doctor suggested that I get them to take a look at it when I was going for my annual exam. And next thing you know, instead of them telling me,

okay, thank you and goodbye, they were moving me to the to the other room so that they could talk to me. And so, you know, that had never happened in all these years. And so it was a little uncomfortable to say the least, to have to go to the room, you know. And so, so the doctor said we need to, you know, take a closer look, but this is what it looks like. What was going through your mind? Once you went to quote unquote the other room that I need some answers right away. I wanted to have the procedure of biopsy done that day. I said, you know, we, you know, we can do this now. I'll take off the shirt. I'll lay down here on the, you know, on the sofa. Let's get this done. I was just in, I need this out of me mode, you know, get this out of me immediately. We can confirm what it is when it's in a jar, you know, over there across the, the side of the room. But I need it out of me right away. And so that's exactly what I was telling them. And they said, well, you know,

we have to get your doctors approval. I said, trust me, I'll call them now. We, we have that. You just tell me if you can put me on the schedule this afternoon. So I was, you know, you know, panicked at that point. And what we opted to do was to, they referred me to a surgeon. And I decided rather than doing a biopsy that I just wanted to get the lump removed. And then they could test the lump. Because either way, I wanted it out. And so that's what they did. That was, I think, a Tuesday. And by that Friday, I was having surgery to remove the lump. Now, prior to you having surgery, you went in for an exam. And during that exam process, the book came to four. Well, sort of something that will have led to what we're going to be talking about. What ended up happening is when they called and told me that Monday that they tested the tumor and that it indeed was positive. I did, they

confirmed that it was breast cancer. I had to have an MRI later that day. I scheduled it for later that day. And basically to find out the extent of the cancer, you know, if it had spread, if it had metastasized. So they scheduled me for an MRI. So it was when I was in the MRI machine that night that, of course, I'd just been given a cancer diagnosis. And I was trying to think of anything, but the fact that the C word had come to live with me. And so I was thinking about baking. I was thinking about baking brownies. I was thinking about anything I could, rather than other than the fact that I had just been given a cancer diagnosis. So it was when I was in the tunnel that I thought, you know what, chocolate heels. And so that's when it came to me. I thought, you know what, that it's healing for me. Just thinking about baking, thinking about doing something else was really

healing for me. And as soon as they pulled me out, my friend, again, Renee was sitting right there and I said, I have an idea. And she kind of looked at me like, oh, my poor friend, she's had such a rough day. I don't know what kind of idea she had in the tunnel, you know, having this MRI. But I said, you know, chocolate heels. And so it was from that moment that I started thinking about not just me and what was going on for me, but doing something in a way that might be able to encourage and inspire others that were going through, not just breast cancer, but tough times. I understand. I understand that you said you identified seven factors that for all intent and purposes sustained you through the difficult teas that tried to rob you of your life insanity. How just seven. Couldn't be eight. Couldn't have been six. Well, there, you know, there were a lot of things, but what I did was I was making a list and I decided just to survey some of my friends. And so I sent out emails and said, you know, give me a list of things that helped you get through tough

times. It was men and women. So just, you know, tell me some things that helped you get through tough times. So I had my list. I compared it to theirs. And based on those things, I just kind of sorted it out and came up with the the seven quick bites for licking tough times. Now, when we first met some years ago, I'm not going to say how many years please don't please do not. You were making bebo brownies. So obviously, baking has always been in your lineage. Yes, it has. Yes, it has. I, you know, I had the little green easy bake oven. I was very serious about that. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Don't question. Don't question the easy bake oven, John. I took my baking very seriously when I was little. And, you know, I can remember my mother pulling a chair up to the counter and, you know, so that I could help her stir the cakes and things we were baking. So I love to bake. And yes, I did do the officially licensed brownie for the University of Texas.

Several years ago, I started a brownie company. And, you know, when you're living in Austin, you can't help but be inspired by all things burnt orange and all things Austin, all things Texas. So that's how that came to me. And that's why because I like to bake and because I had the brownie company, that's why I was thinking about baking when I was in having the MRI. No, I understand. If you're just joining us, I'm Johnny L Hanson, Jr. And you're listening to In Black America from KUT Radio. And we're speaking with Marcia L Williams, author of chocolate heels, life is sweet and a breast cancer survivor. I was particularly interested. Who did the artwork? Because this chapter and it looked like a character of you somewhat throughout the book. Well, my hair is a little different, but it is indeed me. Okay. And I was so really fortunate, really blessed to have two people working with me on the book. But Mari Teaman was the illustrator.

He also lives in Austin and did an amazing job helping to visually show what we were trying to absolutely, absolutely. He did an amazing job. And I'm so grateful for him. And as well as for Virginia Tell, who helped edit and put the book together. I mean, she's an amazing writer and editor. So I was really fortunate to have a great team of people supporting me both emotionally and recognizing how important this project was to me to be able to share what I thought were inspiring words to others. Okay. We're going to go through some of the chapters. And as I told you yesterday, you know, I highlighted some of the things that really stuck out in my mind. The first chapter deals with, keep it sweet, save with the power of laughter. How important is laughter throughout your life? Oh my gosh. You know, I had to find something to laugh about every day. And I said then that I would find something because you know what you, John, you know me. So you know that I'm pretty silly. And so I can remember one incident where where I was in

the midst of having a procedure. And and all I can say is that, you know, we were we were playing around with some of the the the the gel and instruments and stuff in there. And so just finding a way to to laugh every day. It was just is really important to me. And so you are made to nurses day because she thought I guess hilarious that you are doing this. Yes, I think she thought either this woman has come completely unglued with all this stuff going on. Or you know, or she really is finding a positive way to look at everything. And so yes, we we did and eventually she actually walked for me doing one of the the breast cancer walks. She remembered me and took pictures when she did walk in my name. So yeah, it was it was silly. We have to say you just have to have fun. I had mentioned that I learned more about chocolate than probably I needed to know. But there are some healing powers to chocolate that one may not had imagined.

Yeah, there was I know you probably seen a lot, you know, when people talk about eating chocolate and not just, you know, just a regular caramel and pecan bar. But dark chocolate actually boost oxidation levels. It has flavonoids which are basically part of a group of antioxidants found in like tea, red wine and other fruits and vegetables. So it does it has a lot of really great properties. And so in addition to being healing for me because I like to bake things made with chocolate, chocolate actually does have its own healing properties. And I was also fascinated with the recipes, the narrative that you use prior to some of the recipes. And we're going to go through some of them, but not all I'm going to want people to write to book. Yes. But chocolate chunk brownies that had a relationship to your brother that you have to explain the bone thing that was working.

There were five kids in my family. I have three older brothers, Wayne, Darryl and Brian, we call them BK. And so it was back in the early 90s that while we were doing our Christmas shopping, I needed a small stocking. And you know, in the mall they have different things. And so the only one I could find had a dog bone in it. So I guess it was for people to put on their mantles for that. So I got that because I needed the stocking and I thought, how funny would this be if I wrapped the bone as part of a gift for Darryl? And that's, so that's part of what I gave him for his Christmas present. And it was really funny. We have a picture of him opening it and kind of looking at the bone like, okay, really? Chapter three deals with a chocolate a day keeps the doctor away. And this obviously deals with, I see you running and exercising. Is this your

story a story that you received from one of your Ace Poon Coons? Well, I think that this is actually a story from a friend in Los Angeles from Dianne. But yeah, this is about just being healthy and you know, watching your diet and just the impact that diet and exercise has on your, you know, always been a healthy individual. Yeah, that's true. You ate vegetables and you ran and not to an extent that you were a marathon. But Jimmy, you were pretty active. Yeah, I danced throughout college and walked and yeah, and kept it healthy. So, and again, there was no family history. But the other story in this chapter actually talks about Dianne and his friend who inspired him, who was who was disabled. And so as Dianne was exercising, he came across his friend and I don't want to tell everything because I want people to get the book. But Dianne shared a very interesting and just an empowering story about how his disabled friend inspired him

to keep it healthy and to really continue to take better care of himself. Throughout the book, you speak and write finally of your friend. How has that togetherness that you are shared over the years and the good and bad times been helpful for you through this journey? Well, I think that that has been one of the things that actually just got me through it completely was just in trying to keep it positive, which we talked about in chapter four, to just having the perfect mix of friends, which is our final chapter. So those days that were really, really hard and where you were discouraged and were overwhelmed by all of the testing and the process and the treatment, having people there, having somebody there to say it's going to be okay, you know, keep it positive. You're doing a good thing, you know, just keep your head up to talk with you, cry with you, laugh with you, pray with you just to be there and fill in what you were missing at

that time has been invaluable to me. And I'm just so fortunate to have people, people in my life that were willing to give up themselves to support me through it all. I was particularly enamored that you gave yourself time, I guess for self-pity, but you didn't wallow in the depths of self-pity. I mean, you gave yourself time to cry, but you put a limit on it. All right, it's time to move on. How was that important for one who is going through whatever they're going through, you know, went through breast cancer surgery, but giving us a lot of yourself to feel bad, but not staying in the depth of that sadness for any length of time? I think for me, it was critical because you didn't want anything to, any of those feelings to really, you know, take a stronghold and kind of pull you in a different direction. And you always, for me wanting to look at the cup is being half full. And so, you know, when they say you just

having something to look forward to was really important to me. And so, but also recognizing to be healthy that it was important to to cry when I needed to cry, to feel sorry for myself that time, but not to let it, not to let it overtake me. That was just important to me, does not to let it because I didn't want it to be a part of my permanent existence. Exactly. I didn't know about the, we are the world thing. Is that? Tell us about our experience. Oh, that was, that was amazing. When I was, when I was living in Los Angeles, I found out about plans for the 10 year anniversary of the, we are the world recording. And so, I contacted Ken Craig in office. He was one of the people that was responsible for the, we are the world. And also another Marcia who was running USA for Africa. And I joined the team to be part of that anniversary celebration. So, it was, it was a lot of fun. It was really an

amazing experience. Did it at A&M Studios and actually presented Quincy Jones with a door that had a sign on it that said, I think it was, check your egos out the door, which is what they had when they were actually doing the original recording. So, that was the gift that he was presented with that evening. So, it was a, a great experience. Keeping it positive, I think we touched on a little bit, Coco or Kuku. Yes, Coco or Kuku, in some days a little bit of both. When you sat down to write this book, other than obviously it must have been therapeutic for you, but obviously you were trying to convey messages, particularly anyone that may be going through any type of hard times. Absolutely. And why was that important? Because I thought about what the gift I had been given of people around me, you know, the medical team, as well as my friends and family

that supported me. And so, what I wanted to do was try to share what I could to inspire and encourage other people, whether it's breast cancer, which this is breast cancer awareness month, or whatever challenges you may be going through. And I think just having a positive attitude was so important to me that I wanted to find a way to, to share that, share that experience, and share that philosophy, I guess, if you will, that there may not be, it may not feel that way every day, but just to keep trying to think positive, try to find the good things that happened that day and focus on those things. Why is a butterfly part of the logo? I think because if it's kind of symbolizing transformation, and I think that I just thought through the whole experience that I was being transformed, and I was growing as a person and as a woman. And even though on the outside, I may look pretty much the same, I have definitely been transformed. And so it was

important to me, I thought it was a really nice touch and really reflective of the whole experience. When did you come up with the chocolate trivia? A lot of research, a lot of research. Now I was just, in putting it together, I didn't want to do, I wanted to do something that would be kind of lighthearted. And so that's why the full title is Chocolate Heels. Life is sweet, seven quick bites for licking tough times. And I wanted people to get that it was, you know, kind of lighthearted. It wasn't a serious book. The messages were important and serious, but it was presented in a lighthearted way. So I thought if we added some chocolate trivia, that just might make the book, you know, more appealing, their recipes in the book. So I thought it might make it kind of fun and just challenge you a little bit. I was shocked and amazed that someone can come up with a different soup. And it was well once a month every week for several. It was, it was

several weeks of soup delivery and different soup. It was a different soup and some of them rotated, but that story, I was just, I was so grateful. Another really wonderful person, Naley, Naley plurred was the curator for Austin's own Umlaugh sculpture garden for many, many years. And dear friend of mine, and I'm a board member of the Umlaugh. And so because I was going to be missing several meetings, Naley who made soups for our meetings said, you know, I can bring you soup. And so she made soup for a living. So she, no, no, not for a living. She made them for for a board meeting. She would make, she would make soups. And so she knew that I, you know, one of the main reasons I went to board meeting was for the soup. Okay, I, you know, the sculpture was really important, but the soup was delicious. So, so when, when I had to take a little bit of time off, she would make a different soup. I mean, she made a carrot ginger soup. There was, I think

it was potato leek and spinach and English pea tomato basal, minsterny. I mean, she just had a variety of soup she would make and deliver to the TV station where my sister worked because she lived around the corner. And so apparently she became known as the, the soup lady because she would drop this off for her to bring home to me just, just about weekly. And I was going to get to you such a theater who had passed away, but you were diagnosed first and then she contracted a more serious form of cancer. How did that affect your rehabilitation or the, the process that you were going through and what's the surgery had taken place? Well, I was diagnosed in October. And so, of course, immediately afterwards, I said, go get checked. And so, and so she did, by November, she was checked and was completely fine. And by that following September, she was stage three triple negative type of breast cancer. And as you mentioned, it did prove to be,

what we did know at the time was a terminal diagnosis. But it was, I'll just say that I'm still healing because it was, I had one sister. And as you know, we were very, very close. I'm pretty much inseparable. And I think that again, while the, some of the physical scars have healed, my healing, of course, being less than a year after my own diagnosis, I became a caregiver for her. And which seemed like things were going okay. And then that following May, we got the terminal diagnosis. And so, you know, it was, it was surreal. It was just surreal. And, and still is just about daily. And so, I have to kind of thumb through the book and look over these chapters again and again, because there was no one closer to me. And she actually wrote the afterward. During the time I was working on the book, so she was inspiring and encouraging to me during my

treatment and healing. And so, it was important to me to try and finish it in kind of both her honor and, you know, to represent both of us. The brownie recipes in the book, have you baked into these brownies lately? As in today? No, I didn't today. What's within the last month? Actually, I have, as a matter of fact, I did the caramel brownies, the caramel pecan brownies. I just did a couple of days ago. And as, you know, as you mentioned, each chapter has a different brownie recipe. And a little story, just kind of talking a little bit more about me and just kind of sharing a little bit more about who I am. So, yes, I did just make the caramel pecan brownies. And what we have, the chocolate chunk, we have some cream cheese in there. So, yeah, I do, I do still love to bake and love to bake brownies and, you know, all kinds of other healthy treats. Marscia Air Williams, author of Chocolate Heels, Life is Sweet. If you have questions, comments,

or suggestions as to your future in Black America programs, email us at jhanson.htl.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You're going to hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Averis, I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs, kut radio, one university station, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in Black America CDs, kut radio, one university station, Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of kut radio.