Educator gleans life lesson from diagnosis

At first, Alice Laurendine could easily explain away the downturn in her health.

Backaches weren’t surprising, as she had already had two back surgeries. Weight gain and bloating could be easily explained away. Frequent fatigue? Well, Laurendine was in her 60s and had always been one to stay too busy.

As the symptoms continued, the Hoover resident and retired Vestavia Hills educator began researching pancreatic, colon and other different types of cancer. But she was diagnosed in 2008 with the one thing she never thought to research: ovarian cancer. It seemed impossible — Laurendine had a hysterectomy and her ovaries removed 23 years ago.

“I didn’t even think about ovarian cancer because I had my ovaries removed,” Laurendine said. “Maybe if I had, I’m not sure I would have accepted that thought anyway.”

Laurendine was one of the first teachers at Vestavia Hills High School when it opened in 1970, and she said the principal would joke that she was the very first one hired. She left Birmingham City Schools to work for the brand-new school system, and she described those years as an “ideal time.”

“It was just a dream to work with people who truly loved kids [and] cared about what they learned,” Laurendine said.

After taking time off once her daughter was born, Laurendine was a member of the Vestavia Hills Board of Education, then worked for the state Department of Education and was the first principal of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School on Cahaba Valley Road. When her daughter entered high school, Laurendine returned to Vestavia Hills High School in 1986 as an assistant principal.

In the early 1990s, Laurendine moved to the principal position at Vestavia Hills Elementary West, where she stayed until she retired in 2005. She still has a mock cover of the Birmingham News that teachers and students at the school made after her retirement announcement to show their appreciation.

No matter what position she held, Laurendine said, her decisions were always guided by a focus on the students’ best interests, and her most rewarding days were when students would say that they didn’t want to go to school anywhere else.

“We moved beyond what was expected of ourselves. We could see that there was something else,” Laurendine said of her time in the Vestavia Hills school system.

‘THE NEW NORMAL’

At 67, Laurendine first began experiencing symptoms of cancer. When a day of severe abdominal pain made her unable to attend a football game or later sleep, Laurendine’s husband took note. Around 4 a.m., he suggested they go to the emergency room. Laurendine is glad she didn’t argue.

“If I had refused, I mean, who knows what would have happened,” Laurendine said.

At the emergency room, doctors found a cancerous mass where her ovaries would have been. Laurendine, her husband and daughter were all in disbelief when they found out.

“You can have everything removed, you can have a complete hysterectomy. You have reduced the risk, you have not removed the risk. And that’s what happened to me,” Laurendine said.

Surgery to remove the mass was quickly followed by a round of chemotherapy. Laurendine cycled between good days — when she could drive and see people — and bad days — when she wouldn’t leave the house. She kept flowers and cards all around her home for encouragement, but occasionally found herself crying in the kitchen at night because she couldn’t believe the diagnosis.

“It was hard because I had cancer. I mean, the big C-word,” Laurendine said. “Cancer was something I knew nothing about.”

Throughout the process, Laurendine said she couldn’t have kept up her spirits without faith and the support of her family and friends. This included her beautician, who took care of Laurendine’s hair at no charge as soon as it began to fall out from the chemo.

In the midst of doctor’s visits and tests, Laurendine went back to her roots in education.

“During that I had time to think. And I thought, ‘I’m supposed to do something with this.’ And I thought, ‘OK, awareness is my thing. I can teach people about awareness,’” Laurendine said.

While she doesn’t make ovarian cancer the center of her life, Laurendine shares her story and answers questions when friends connect her with women diagnosed with ovarian cancer or their family members. She has a packet ready with information and questions to ask doctors, so others aren’t caught unprepared like she was.

“You learn a lot. You learn that you’re vulnerable and that you don’t want anyone else to go through that, but you can’t feel sorry for yourself,” she said.

However, she’s also careful about what she shares, so she doesn’t overwhelm women as they come to grips with their diagnosis.

“It can scare somebody if they heard what you might be going through, might be too difficult,” Laurendine said. “There are moments I look back and think, ‘How did I get through that?’”

One of the valuable lessons Laurendine learned from her unlikely diagnosis was how to deal with enormous problems one day at a time.

“That’s your life, so you can’t say, ‘When this is over I’ll …’” Laurendine said. “You’ve got to think in terms of ‘This is the new normal for me and we will deal with it today, and tomorrow we’ll deal with that then.’”