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When Lynn O'Rourke had at one time juggled work at a juvenile group home and as a religious education director while earning a master's degree, she said, "God found a way to let me balance all that."

So, when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August 2012, Mrs. O'Rourke simply threw her treatment into the mix of her current role as parish life director at Our Lady of Fatima in Delanson.

Taking an extended leave "never crossed my mind," the PLD said. "I was determined not to give into this. The minute I got back from the hospital, I wanted to be in that church, because that's what a leader does."

Mrs. O'Rourke's sudden gastrointestinal distress two summers ago left her jaundiced and near kidney failure. She was diagnosed with the disease in the hospital and returned to work for a week while awaiting the Whipple procedure, an operation that removes the head of the pancreas. A small percentage of patients qualify for this surgery.

While recovering, she spent 10 days in the hospital and then five weeks in a rehabilitative nursing home on feeding and drainage tubes. When four cancerous lymph nodes remained, she underwent a course of chemotherapy, starting in December.

The treatment was mild in comparison to some other courses, but still "unbelievably devastating," Mrs. O'Rourke said. Muscle weakness caused multiple falls, and she couldn't fit shoes over her swollen feet. "It left me just completely wiped. The cure is worse than the disease."

Our Lady of Fatima parishioners drove her to treatments every week for six months. They flooded her hospital room with cards, flowers, decorations and prayer shawls, knitted her hats when she lost her hair and delivered home-cooked meals to the parish rectory, where she lives with her husband, Bob, and three cats.

One of her treatments fell on Ash Wednesday, so the PLD distributed ashes, prayer shawls and caps to more than a dozen other patients: "I felt like I was really doing God's work that day. This is a way to pay it forward to the people who have cancer."

When Mr. O'Rourke informed the congregation of his wife's illness in the fall, a collective gasp echoed throughout the sanctuary. While she was in treatment, Mr. O'Rourke helped to maintain the church properties, shopped, cooked and helped her negotiate stairs.

The treatment stopped in the spring, when Mrs. O'Rourke had fluid buildup in her lungs. "I literally woke up one night drowning," she remembered. "No matter what I did, I couldn't get a breath."

The PLD only took two sick days a week during chemo: "I just refused to act like I was beaten," she said. "I had to drag myself over there, but I was there, because I felt the people needed to see my presence. They view me as a person [who] is very strong and models Jesus."

While away from home, "there wasn't a group or ministry that wasn't in place," she said. But she struggled "being away from the people and the parish" and missing her monthly turn to offer a reflection at homily time.

She knew the 250-family parish could exist without her constant service, but she worried about not being there for the ministries - faith-sharing, prayer shawls, homebound outreach, jail ministry and the like - that she had launched.

Now, Mrs. O'Rourke has formed a parish team to participate in Relay for Life, an overnight American Cancer Society fundraiser. She also wants to start a bereavement ministry.

It looks like those goals might be possible: At 63, the PLD has been cancer-free for a year, though she still uses oxygen at night and is doing physical therapy to restore her leg strength.

She feels lucky to have survived a disease with an often grim prognosis.

"I've had miracle after miracle," she said. Taped to her hand during each surgery was a cross necklace and a clear plastic rock containing an angel figurine she calls Raphael. "I think that my faith helped me win it. I say to God all the time, 'Whatever happens is your will, but I don't think you're done with me yet.'

"Every day when I wake up," she continued, "I thank God that He's allowed me to live another day. My sense is that God left me here for a reason."[[In-content Ad]]

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