-I love a lot of people -- a lot of my friends,
of course my family -- but my kids always come first.
When you have a child, when that baby comes out,
you automatically just love that child.
I mean, it just fills your heart up,
and it makes you unbelievably happy.
That's why I have five kids.
They're, to me, the best.
Somebody could say they're brats,
and I'll be, "Eh, no, they're not. They're the best."
'Cause they're mine.
As a mom, you want to pull them in
and just protect them from anything.
You don't want to come home and tell your kids,
"Hey, Mom's got cancer."
I'm the mama bear, I guess you'd say.
There wasn't a weekend that you didn't have six boys or more
in this house that was not my own.
And it smelled like a locker room.
-Dad, don't do that, 'cause then your laundry smells like ass.
That's what your gear smells like.
-Whenever we're in trouble, it was always,
"I brought you in this world, and I can take you out."
[ Laughs ]
-Photography, to me, is an escape from my cancer.
Is he coming?
-Yep, right now.
-I can capture moments the kids will always have.
-She's always taking pictures,
ever since I've been in high school,
and she hasn't missed one game,
even when the coach didn't really ask her.
-And the coach got me -- It's called 2012 MCHS Soccer,
Juli Palmer, Queen of Photography.
-My dad was always working when I was younger,
so soccer practice, school,
Mom was always there to pick us up and take us to practice,
make us dinner when we got him, make sure we did our homework.
She's definitely the backbone of the family.
-That last one was excellent.
I always wanted to go to college.
Never had the time with all the kids.
I filled everything out.
I took whatever test they have you take.
And I got accepted.
And I was working on making my final project,
and I was in a lot of pain.
So the next day, I called the doctor and got in.
After the new year, it was official -- It was cancer.
[ Dog barking ]
-It is shocking. It all hits you at once.
You feel like someone's just kicked you in the stomach.
Oh, I had a hundred questions for the doctor,
but I couldn't ask one.
-We sat them down and told them what it was.
Sophie and Seth wanted to know what "terminal" meant.
And I said, "This cancer will kill me.
Not now. Down the road, yes.
But you have to understand that I will pass from this."
And he just kind of looked at me.
-I don't blame anyone for this at all.
And this wouldn't have happened if there wasn't a reason for it.
-I think dying sucks.
Cancer sucks.
But you make the best of it.
Try not to let it rule me and take over everything.
[ Light laughter ]
-She does a lot for other people.
Especially when you go to the cancer center for the chemo,
they all know her, they all talk to her.
-You my nurse today? -I am.
-Come on in.
I'm like a little heavy camper in there smiling on my Facebook.
I try to help people, talk to people about theirs,
'cause it's a hard thing to deal with.
Some people survive it, but if they're gonna survive it,
I hope I come off and help them be more positive about it.
It's hard for me to see people be negative about cancer.
It's like wasting your energy to be so negative.
-She helps them truly realize
that they are lucky to have what they have,
because you just don't know what's around the next corner.
-You make friends with a lot of them there.
-Mm-hmm. -And then you lose them...
which is hard.
-Oh, yeah.
-I think I hit the peak,
and I think I'm starting to go down, slowly.
Um, just slowly.
'Cause more aches, more pains.
Switching around all the chemos.
But I know there's gonna come a day
when he's just gonna look at me and say,
"I can't do any more chemo. I have nothing else."
-Yeah, we try to talk about it, but it's definitely easier
not to talk about it than it is to talk about it.
-Doesn't want to hear it. It's too hard on him.
-I stay busy all the time.
I don't think about it as much,
which is not the right thing to do.
-It's hard, but she looks good bald,
and she's positive about it, so...
Doesn't really always weigh on my mind.
-It's nice having support.
You always know that there's gonna be support there for you.
[ Sniffles ]
Oh, I was just imagining not having her there.
[ Sniffles ]
-I think there's a Heaven, and I know she'll be there.
But, uh...
I don't know how much I honestly believe in God anymore.
Here's my mom, a mother of five,
and they're telling her she's gonna die of cancer.
-[ Voice breaking ] I don't want to leave them.
That's the part that's not fair.
I don't want them to forget me.
My biggest fear is Seth forgetting me.
[ Cries ]
Thank you.
I don't want Steve to forget me, either.
'Cause he'll be lost.
Won't have anybody to keep him in line.
You okay?
I'm not. [ Laughs ]
[ Normal voice ] I get the ugly look when I cry.
The red and the -- Ugh, I hate it.
I hate breaking out in the ugly cry
where you go [inhales sharply]
That's the ugly cry, and you have to recover from that one.
-Everybody takes it differently, I guess.
But you got to be positive, like she says.
As long as you're positive, you'll be fine.
Sun comes up every day.
-[ Laughs ]
-You're such a goober.
If you don't laugh and you're always serious about everything,
you're not gonna survive.
You have to be positive. You have to laugh every day.
You gonna give me a kiss or hug? -Hug.
-You have to show everybody you love them.
-[ Chuckles ]
-'Cause you know it's coming. You can't change it.
So make little jokes about it.
And then I told him I'd haunt him.
[ Laughs ]
-That's not a joke. That's for real.
I believe that one.
-I want to be part of her life as much as I can.
Life's short, and you never know what can happen.
Family is the most important thing in your life.
Without your family, you wouldn't be the person you are.
-If I didn't have all that big circle of family,
I'd have gave up a long time ago.
-We got so many people praying.
There's always that door open for hope.
We're never gonna close that, that's for sure.
-Cancer's cancer.
Yes, it's a disease. Yes, it can be really bad.
But you can also be a better person with it.
Nice meeting you. -God bless you.
-God bless you, too.
What I have learned and what I have helped other people with,
it's okay.
We all have to die at some point in time.
And, honestly, I don't think I'd change it.
Not the dying part. Of course, I don't want to go anywhere.
But I don't think I'd change having cancer.
I don't regret any of this.
They don't give you what you can't handle.
I have five children. I can do anything.