Patricia Snead holds a pink rose in honor of her struggle and victory over cancer. She was diagnosed in 2017 with cell lymphoma and renal cancer but was officially cleared of it in 2019.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Luke Strong and Son Mortuary usually deals in death and remembrance but for October it chose to take on life via breast cancer awareness.

With cupcakes, cookies and lemonade, all in pink, the mortuary honored Breast Cancer Awareness month on Oct. 17. Mortuary owner Luke Strong III said awareness needed a jump start — a conversation starter — because cancer happens all too often.

“It’s so real here in Moultrie,” Strong said. “And it’s not only breast cancer, all forms of cancer. We see it all the time.”

The mortuary couldn’t have free screenings because of time constraints though it made a way to honor survivors of all cancers in the form of a pink rose.

Patricia Snead said it felt good to be thought about like this.

She was diagnosed with cell lymphoma and renal cancer in 2017, subsequently going through five months of chemotherapy and two months of radiation therapy.

After going back in August 2018 to see if the cancer waned, she found she’d have to lose a kidney.

“It had completely failed, so they removed [it],” she said. “By the grace of God, I’m still here.”

And God is who she gave it all to during the ordeal. For her to have made it to this point — free of cancer in 2019 — and be commended for it was “a wonderful thing,” she said.

“I think this is something, someone should always do,” Snead said. “[Just] have people come out so they can encourage other people that are going through it.”

She wasn’t the only one.

Colquitt County Associate Magistrate Judge Traci Williams, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, said Strong was “the best ever” for doing this. To her, it was a pleasure to receive a pink rose.

“Just like any other disease, you don’t start thinking about it until it hits home,” Strong said. “We just wanted to have an opportunity where people can just start thinking about this.”