A doting father battling cancer has summoned all his strength for a very special moment. Determined to show his love and pride for his youngest daughter, he walked her across her school’s football field as she was crowned homecoming queen.
High school sweethearts Carrie, 48, and Brett Yancey, 47, have been married for 25 years and have three daughters, 24-year-old nurse Savannah, 21-year-old student Sydney, and 17-year-old Sarakate, a senior at Southside High School, Alabama.
Mr. Yancey was diagnosed with esophageal cancer at the age of 41, and after a year in remission following a successful surgery, the cancer returned and spread. Despite his declining health, when Sarakate was named homecoming queen in her senior year, the doting dad knew that he wanted to make the 50-yard walk with his daughter to receive her crown.
“Sarakate was in middle school when Brett was first diagnosed with cancer,” Ms. Yancey told The Epoch Times. “She has an amazing school, and her classmates have walked this journey with her for most of her time in school the past six or seven years, so we just feel honored that her classmates recognized her as their homecoming queen.”
Sadly, since Mr. Yancey was diagnosed with cancer, the couple has missed Sarakate’s Christmas dances, award ceremonies, prom, and ball games.
“This was just an event that Brett was not going to miss,” Ms. Yancey said.
When Sarakate became the homecoming maid in her sophomore year, her father received a major surgery in Houston, Texas, and thus was unable to escort her. Luckily, her sisters Savannah and Sydney walked her across the field while their father watched from his hospital bed.
Ahead of the Oct. 3 senior homecoming ceremony, Mr. Yancey was determined to be beside his daughter. But his health had deteriorated the week prior, and the Yancey family and school administration were worried about how to make the walk possible, and they thus offered to drive him across the field in a golf cart.
“They offered to let him stand on the home side, and not have to walk across the field,” Ms. Yancey said. “But Brett was determined to make that complete walk with his daughter ... he just wanted to be a part of the whole experience and did not want her to do that alone.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Yancey stood in the bleachers with her heart pounding, watching her frail husband cross the field with his daughter in her beautiful pink dress.
“To even walk from our bedroom to our bathroom is difficult,” she said. “But you know, when you’re in the moment and, you have that love for your daughter, it’s a whole different ballgame.”
Having her father by her side, a proud Sarakate was in tears, and the Southside crowd gave her a standing ovation.
“Even the visitors’ side stood in applause,” Ms. Yancey said. “It was just an amazing moment. ... I think it just honestly showed the community what a fighter truly is.”
Ms. Yancey, the principal at Southside Elementary, and Mr. Yancey, a retired teacher and coach at the same school, “ignored a lot of the signs and symptoms” before Mr. Yancey was diagnosed with cancer. However, six years ago when Mr. Yancey began having trouble swallowing, he saw a doctor, who performed an esophageal dilation and predicted the root cause of it to be cancer.
“We were obviously devastated,” his wife said. “Brett is a strong guy, and we knew right off the bat that we were in for a journey, but we knew that with his strength and his determination, he was going to fight as hard as he could, to be able to be there for our children, especially.”
Mr. Yancey started chemotherapy and radiation before having a partial esophagectomy. His scans were clear for months, but around the first anniversary of his surgery, the cancer recurred. The family began making regular trips to Houston for experimental courses of chemotherapy and radiation, but the cancer eventually spread to his lungs and lymph nodes.
An “amazing team” at MD Anderson Cancer Center performed a rare, complete esophagectomy, removing Mr. Yancey’s esophagus and replacing it with part of his small intestines. The father of three is currently attending fortnightly treatments in Carrollton, Georgia, for the spread of the disease.
“Prior to the homecoming event ... we knew that there was something not quite right because he had some left leg paralysis and some memory gaps,” Ms. Yancey said. “We have discovered that there is some brain swelling, and what they call radiation necrosis from previous treatments in the brain, so we are treating that as well as the cancerous spots.
“[M]ost doctors have told us they’ve not ever seen someone survive this long, because it’s such an aggressive cancer,” she said. “However, you know, we just feel like there’s been so many people that have stood in the gap for us and have prayed for us and have supported us. We just believe that God has given us a platform ... He’s still in the miracle business, and Brett is a walking miracle.”
Mr. Yancey shares a close bond with all three of his daughters, whom he coached in softball and basketball through school, and the family’s shared faith allows them to feel positive about the future.
“My girls are our jewels, and their daddy’s girls, especially. ... My children are positive, hopeful; they just believe in complete healing for their dad,” said Ms. Yancey, who admires her husband for his toughness and for enduring grueling treatments “even though he could give up at any moment.”
“He just continues to fight for his family and give us more time,” she said. “We just get to love on him every day. I’m so proud of the man that he is, the father that he is, the husband that he is.”
