Rebekah Price is a 35-year-old single mother who taught preschool for 12 years before being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare, very aggressive form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Three times a year, Price must leave her two young daughters to fly across the country from her home near San Diego, California to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In Maryland, Price is administered PET scans and blood work, as medical experts monitor the progression of her cancer.
Meanwhile, back in California, Price’s neighbors in Carlsbad—a small beach town north of San Diego—are grousing about the color that the dying woman has chosen to paint her house. One neighbor complained that the sea foam green house is so bright, it glows in the dark. According to Price, other neighbors have expressed their sentiments by smearing the fence with feces and leaving a dead rabbit on the lawn. Price painted her house with happy colors to brighten her spirits: “Life’s been pretty dark for a long time,” she explained. “I want color, you know?”
For the full story, go to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
