Hanover woman gets ‘unforgettable night’ as time winds down

Kate Homan beat breast cancer twice. Now she's fighting lung cancer and won't win.

But the 44-year-old mother of four from Hanover County is determined to enjoy what time she has left.

That was made easy last night when a bright pink stretch Hummer limousine picked up Homan and her family for a night out on the town.

Homan and her husband, John, were joined by children Emma, 10, Leah, 7, Frances, 5, and Jesse, 3, for ice cream and miniature golf if time allowed.

"It's going to be an unforgettable night. I'm feeling really good. I'm excited," she said while awaiting the limo. "I can't wait to see the look on the kids' faces."

She noted that the night also happened to be her 14th wedding anniversary. "He's off the hook tonight," she said with a laugh.

"When the limo arrived I was really excited," said Emma, the oldest of the four children.

"It was really cool. Then we got ice cream and that was good, but I think I got too big of a cup. We played tag for a little bit and then rode in the limo and talked. The boys talked about really gross things."

The excursion was made possible by Homan's friend Mary Beth Gibson and the kindness of Dave Duty, owner of Icon Limousine, a Virginia Beach company.

Gibson runs a breast-cancer support group that prints an annual calendar of breast-cancer survivors in which Homan will be featured next year. Duty provides transportation to the premiere party in the Hummer each year.

After hearing that Homan might not be there for the October premiere because of her illness, Duty offered to bring the fun to her.

"This person I don't even know heard my story and wanted to make a special night for me and my family," she said. "I get choked up when I think about it."

Homan was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. Though chemotherapy, she was cleared. A recurrence came in 2007, but she beat that, too, with surgery.

But in 2008, after seeing a doctor for a persistent cough, the nonsmoker was diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer.

"They couldn't tell me how I got it. No one knows where it came from," she said.

Homan went through daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy, trying various medications for months with little success.

"We just got to the point where there was really not much more they could do," she said. "I was so beaten down, we thought, since we know where this is going, why not just have good days and comfortable time with the family?"

Homan elected in June to switch to hospice care at home and said she has more energy than before and is able to get around pretty well with a portable oxygen tank.

She doesn't know exactly how much time she has and doesn't want to know. "I'm just enjoying the time I have," she said.

That's what last night was all about, Homan said, adding that most of her excitement was for her children.

"They weren't really scared too much through the breast cancer ordeal, but this is a little different," she said. "But things like this help them keep their minds off the stresses."

Homan said that through acts of generosity like Duty's, her children are learning a special lesson in kindness. Each week, neighbors and friends bring meals to the family, bring Homan coffee and give her rides to doctor's appointments.

"The kids see this and see how kind people have been, and I think it will have a big impact on them. That's one good thing that's coming out of this, they're learning something about empathy."

"Who knows?" she said. "Maybe one of them will grow up and become a medical researcher and find a cure for someone else's cancer."

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .