Community Profiles: Chris Miller, artist and lover of life wages war with cancer
by Janine Giordano |
Richfield Springs resident Chris Miller is the picture of health: petite, attractive, constantly preaching about the benefits of a healthy diet and regular exercise. She is a lover of life, spending hour after hour photographing wildlife, sunsets, landscapes and sunrises. So in love with life is she, that for the last two years, she has defied numerous doctors’ diagnoses that she is dying of cancer. “I’m still here, aren’t I,” she said laughing. “I’m not going anywhere.” Rather than wallow in pity and fear, Miller has taken hold of life and lives every day to the fullest, spreading her bubbling enthusiasm, her quiet and sometimes not so quiet strength, and her ever joyous optimism, touching people’s hearts wherever she goes, seemingly effortlessly. When she walks into a room it seems brighter. If someone is weary, it’s as if she loans them her energy. If someone is sad, she cheers them up. People who meet her describe her as simply, “amazing.” If there was a word that topped amazing, it would describe her perfectly. One small column in a local weekly newspaper could never do her justice. “The power of positive thinking is the most powerful thing I have,” she said, her eyes vibrant. “The more positive you are, the better equipped you are to face anything.” When she was told she had cancer by her 16 year old son, “I told him, we will get through this. The Big C is not going to take me out,” Miller said. Approximately three years ago, Miller started not feeling well, growing tired easily and feeling a pain in her groin. Since she has no insurance she could not go to the doctor. She researched her symptoms, and, never even considering cancer, told herself it was a hernia. She saved a year to pay for a hernia operation, contacted a doctor in Bassett, told him what she needed and the surgery was set up after minimal tests. “I was never tested for anything else,” she said. When the doctor opened her up, she said, he saw the cancer, closed her back up and went and told her son, Gavin, who is now 19, and her sister. Both of them thought she had been told. However, two days later when she wasn’t feeling any better, Miller said she mentioned to her son that it didn’t feel right. It was then he told her the doctor said she had cancer and he thought she had been told as well. Since then, several doctors have told her there is nothing they can do for her, that she doesn’t have long to live and that she should contact Hospice. But she refuses to stop fighting. “If someone would just take the tumors out, the liver regenerates itself. Its the only part of the body that does this,” she said, frustration tinging her voice. “I could take care of this. But no one wants to touch me because of Medicaid, and no insurance.” So rather than give up, Miller has chosen to experience everything in life that she can, as soon as possible. She has visited all but three of the United States, those being Alaska, North Dakota and Maine. “Those are on my to-do list, “ she said. Recently, she marked another item off her “to-do list” with the exhibition of her photography at the Cherry Valley Branch gallery in Cherry Valley. Here, her photographs of the area, Van Hornesville waterfalls, winter brooks, sunsets and views taken from the State Troopers headquarters in Richfield Springs, are on display and available for purchase. It was through her friendship with the troopers in Richfield, where she works as a civilian employee, that Miller was able to reach this point with her photography. With the digital camera her buddies bought her for Christmas, she is able to take photographs she plans to turn into posters, complete with inspirational messages. Her goal is to decorate the waiting rooms at Bassett so that people waiting for radiation therapy will have something pretty to look at, rather than bleary walls. “They need hope, inspiration,” Miller said. “(The doctors) had no right to take away my hope. They just don’t give people hope for their own survival.” A member of the patient advisory board, Miller has made similar efforts to ease the worries of patients, and to brighten their lives, if only for a little while. She has taught scarf tying classes there, for women and men who are experiencing hair loss as a result of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “I had everyone laughing,” she said with a grin. She has also donated hats and scarves to the unit for people to take and use throughout their treatments. So intent on making the world a beautiful place, whether it’s through tying a scarf around someone’s head, or hanging a picture in a waiting room or even photographing a doe relieving herself in Miller’s front yard, Miller said she has to do these things “because time is running out. I have to keep going,” she said. Then, as an afterthought, she said, “I’m not going anywhere any time soon, I’m not done yet.” So, despite her prognosis, Miller continues to live, love and laugh. Her words echo as she flips through the matted photographs she has prepared for sale. “The will of God will not take you to where the grace of God will not protect you.” Those words are printed at the bottom of one of her favorite photographs, taken of a favorite spot in Van Hornesville, with a gift given to her by some of her most favorite friends. Life is meant to be lived. And that is exactly what Chris Miller is doing. To see a glimpse of this life as Miller sees it, head down to the Cherry Valley Branch art gallery in Cherry Valley, where her work is currently on display.
|
|