Cancer Victim Sees Her Vision As Healing Sign

A waterfall of light filled Colleen Hoffman’s bedroom nine years ago as she lay waiting for sleep.

She knew she wasn’t dreaming but she didn’t know what was happening. At least it wasn’t frightening.

For years, the vision baffled her. It related to nothing - until she was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago.

“I knew it was the vision of my healing,” she says now with complete conviction.

Colleen is 49 now and manages Coeur d’Alene’s Village Inn. Vitality shines in her blue eyes and she’s often mistaken for a much younger woman. She wants other women to know there is life after breast cancer.

She knew since childhood that she was a likely candidate for cancer. Her mother was 32 when doctors removed her breasts and lymph nodes. Cancer had killed other relatives.

Colleen didn’t live in fear, but she also wasn’t reckless. She found a lump in her right breast 12 years ago and had a biopsy. It was benign.

The vision of light appeared to her shortly after her second marriage. She thought it was a sign she was pregnant. Time proved her wrong, but she couldn’t forget the light.

Then, in 1993, an impending change in her insurance prompted Colleen to get a mammogram. She hadn’t had one in four years. The results indicated cancer.

“My first thought was, ‘I’m going to die,”’ she says. “But I must have met a hundred women who had been there and said I’d be fine. That really helped.”

A biopsy showed cancer throughout her left breast. Within a month, doctors removed the breast and rebuilt it with a saline implant. The surgery was so quick, Colleen nearly felt guilty that she hadn’t suffered more.

After her diagnosis, she read a book that suggested she help herself heal by envisioning something destroying the cancer inside her. Nothing came to mind until after her surgery. She saw a waterfall on a commercial and, suddenly, her puzzling vision had meaning.

She envisioned the sparkling light she’d seen in her bedroom long ago washing away her cancer. She began writing down positive verses, songs, ideas.

Doctors wanted another biopsy to see if the cancer had spread. Colleen was confident it was gone. The biopsy proved her right.

She worries about her daughter and granddaughter now, but knows she can help if cancer threatens them.

“I do truly believe that’s why I had this experience,” she says. “I can help other people by telling them what I went through.”

Kootenai Medical Center will offer a free public forum on breast cancer 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, in the Health Resource Center. Five doctors will discuss its causes, treatment, diagnosis, recovery and research.

Boo benefit

Put on the makeup, or buy a custom-made mask at the Kootenai County Arts Council’s auction at 7 p.m., Oct. 24, in The Coeur d’Alene Resort Plaza, then head for the Coeur d’Alene Elks Lodge for a howlin’ Halloween party on Oct. 26.

The party costs $5 per person, but the money will go to Art on the Edge. The program offers teenagers free art classes after school.

Go dressed for dancing, playing games, scaring friends, eating, drinking and buying kid-carved jack-o’lanterns. Call 773-1725 for tickets.

Haunted houses

It’s easy to find people who never outgrew Halloween. Their homes are covered with ghosts, ghouls and cobwebs. Some even plant bodies out in the front yard.

Where are the best Halloween houses in your community? Don’t keep them to yourselves. Howl about them to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; FAX to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or E-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo