When Anita Webb, a long time member of MLMUG, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 1999, her life turned upside down. In mid-October she was literally hanging upside down on the flying trapeze— happily accomplishing tricks and maneuvers that many less than half her age could not perform. Now, ten days later, her future was hanging in the balance— Anita had breast cancer. "It's hard enough to balance on the flying trapeze," Anita said, "but to balance life and death is another story."

After three days of uncontrollable crying, she decided that the only thing to do was to get a grip on her situation. Just as she grips the trapeze bar and defies gravity, Anita gripped her emotions and decided to defy cancer. Her doctors said it would be a long road back to health but she could do it— and she would fly again. She had a goal to complete a single somersault to the hands of the catcher by the time she was 65 years old. A very difficult trick but she knew that if she trained hard enough she could reach her goal. She was 62 at the time of the breast cancer diagnosis.

And so a new goal was established. Get better, beat cancer, and get back to life in the air— the rarefied air of the flying trapeze. "I've only been training on the trapeze for two years and I've never been scared, but cancer scared me…You really don't know what you are in for, and just the word cancer conjures up images that…leave you scared and your emotions are tried to their very limit."

So what did Anita do before her November surgery? She went "trapezing" for a week. "I worked and worked on my tricks at a wonderful trapeze rig in Montreal, Canada. I guess I felt I needed those accomplishments to carry me through the next nine months of cancer treatments."

Surgery over, chemotherapy treatments began two days after Christmas; hair falls out, body aches, and the fight begins. "I never once lost my spirit and as long as I had my positive attitude, I could move ahead and say this was just a glitch in my life."

Anita had planned that during her treatment and recovery period there would be plenty of time to learn about her aging Apple PowerPC computer. Her plan was to spend several hours a day just to learn new "stuff." It's the Moe Comeau way: just sit down and work on all those little hidden agendas that every computer secretly hides. Well, that didn't last long— no offense to her computer.

In February, she received a call from her flying trapeze idol, Tito Gaona. She was invited to take part in a special trapeze workshop in Florida. "I was thrilled to be singled out and I couldn't say no even though I was in chemo treatments. I wanted to be trained by Tito, lead flyer in the world-famous Flying Gaonas. I couldn't find myself in the air and my timing was way off, but I kept working at it." Her love of flying carried her through those days in February. In April of this year Anita will again train with Tito— her dream come true.

What does it take to survive and come up smiling? Ask Anita and she will say "just do it. You can't feel sorry for yourself and you can't complain. Set goals and look at the cancer experience as a journey. Life does go on and you have to be in it. Make the most of the up days and forget the down days…All I really wanted to do was to have the joy of climbing back up the trapeze ladder, the joy of a beautiful take-off and then to fly to the catcher." Her chemotherapy and radiation treatments ended in July. She was back up on the trapeze and has been flying high ever since.

Mmm, where does learning the "computer stuff" fit in? Perhaps a follow-up article…

— Maria