By STEPHANIE A. JAMES
Staff Writer
For an Appomattox mother, one of her final wishes was to see her daughter graduate.
Last week, Lisa Mitchell got a chance to witness that through an improvised graduation ceremony.
Mitchell has thymus cancer, a rare cancer that affects the organ located in the upper portion of the chest cavity behind the sternum.
She was diagnosed with the cancer in 2008 and received surgery as well as radiation.
When the cancer returned last year and as her condition became terminal, she wanted to see her daughter, Summer, graduate high school.
Last Tuesday, her daughter arranged a simulated graduation ceremony at their home.
A series of phone calls and the help from her best friend and Appomattox County High School Guidance Counselor Robyn Whorley, ACHS band director Bryan Allgood and chorus teacher Brenda Barringer a plan was set in motion.
“I was glad to do this for Mrs. Mitchell. It was an honor and a privilege,” said Whorley.
To surprise Mitchell, Summer did not say a word about the plan.
With a portable keyboard, pomp and circumstance was played.
Then, her caretaker and cousin, Wanda Vandegrift, wheeled Mitchell to the living room.
The ceremony proved to be a surprise for Mitchell.
“When they started playing the music, I started crying,” said Mitchell. “That was wonderful.”
Summer was not expecting her mother’s reaction to the impromptu improvised ceremony.
“She was balling crying, I was overwhelmed,” said Summer. “But they were happy tears.”
Summer, a National Honor Society student and tennis player, will march with her class during the graduation ceremony set for June 3, 2013.
When her mother was first diagnosed with thymus cancer, she had two surgeries.
The surgeries were followed by radiation that ended in February 2009.
One day during a checkup, Mitchell’s doctor felt a knot in one of her lymph nodes indicating a cancerous tumor.
The second time surgery could not be performed because the cancer was near her heart and lungs.
She underwent chemotherapy treatments the second time around.
Mitchell is now receiving hospice care.
Throughout her ordeal, Mitchell keeps a positive attitude.
As a result of her positive outlook, Summer describes her mother as a fighter.