Updated: Saturday, Jul. 26, 1997 at 20:34 CDT
Dying woman is inspiration for all of us
By Dave Lieber
The Star-Telegram
You need to meet Jill McWhorter before it's too late.
She's one of those special people whose time on this Earth is too short, but she has the good sense to make the most of each day. She's someone who helps the rest of us appreciate the magnificent gift of life.
Jill McWhorter, 49, is dying of brain cancer. The cancer was diagnosed last year, and she has been fighting ever since. But, as she says, "It's a terminal situation, and we know that."
McWhorter took over as director of Roanoke Senior Center in December 1993. Since then, the Walnut Street center has become the heart of Roanoke life. The senior citizens luncheon each Wednesday attracts at least 100 people from Roanoke and neighboring towns. With great food and friends, it's the place to be.
Before lunch, McWhorter makes the announcements. Last week, she gave updates on some of the center's devoted members.
Don's mother passed away, she said. Jerry had surgery. And L.D. was recuperating in the hospital.
McWhorter also regales them with humor. She told recently of her children, Robert and Lisa, cleaning out her refrigerator and throwing out all the eggs.
"Why'd you throw out my eggs?" she asked.
"Well, Mother, they were all green!" the children replied.
But the eggs had come from Araucanas hens owned by Kelly Bradley, director of Metroport Meals on Wheels and a big booster of Roanoke Senior Center. Every senior at the center knows these funny-looking eggs.
Sharing is the norm at Roanoke Senior Center.
"It's a home away from home," Bradley said. "And Jill is a huge part of that happening."
It's natural, then, that everyone in McWhorter's extended family knows about her cancer.
"You're my family," she tells the seniors. "You're going to know everything. And we're going to take this journey together."
The seniors support McWhorter in many ways -- with hugs, laughter and, of course, hats. McWhorter lost her beautiful wavy hair to chemotherapy, so the seniors bring her a different funny hat to wear each week.
Brian Samson of Trophy Club recently brought her an Australian outback hat decorated with little corks hanging on strings. The corks are supposed to scare away bugs.
After putting it on, McWhorter said, "It's not as bad as I thought."
Last week, Mary Louise Wright of North Richland Hills brought McWhorter an old-fashioned red pillbox hat with a cardboard white dove attached to the front. Wright called it "a touch of an angel" hat.
"If you could ever say that someone was touched by an angel, it's her," Wright said. "I've never heard her say* a bad word about anyone or anyone say a bad word about her. She's just a good person."
The seniors wanted to show their love for McWhorter sooner rather than later. So at a Wednesday luncheon last month, they called her outside for a surprise.
On the outer brick wall, the seniors had placed a beautiful bronze plaque that states,
In honor of Jill McWhorter.
Our loving Senior Center Director.
Metroport Meals on Wheels.
McWhorter couldn't be more appreciative. "They gave it to me `in honor of' instead of `in memory of,' or else I never would have been able to see it."
Her words of thanks that day were so inspiring that they deserve to be quoted in full:
"I just want you to know I love y'all very much. And I really take this as an honor. You could never realize how deeply in my heart y'all touch me. And like I've said before, God is taking care of me. He's taking care of you, and he's taking care of my family. And whatever path that we have ahead of us, we're going to make it just fine. We just have to hold tight on what God has promised us, and that is that he'll never leave us. And that's something for you in your daily life and for me in my daily life. And mine's no different than yours. It's just going to be sooner that I go see him. And I'm going to start a senior citizen center in heaven. Thank you very much."
There was laughter, and not much crying. McWhorter is not the kind of person who inspires sadness.
In these final days, she is an inspiration. So many of her friends, her huge extended family, are so proud to know her. She will be missed, but she could never be forgotten.
Dave Lieber's Northeast Beat column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays in the Star-Telegram/ Northeast. � 1997 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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