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Fueling Faith
From Despair to Deliverance: Denise Dallatory's Inspiring Journey of Faith and Survival
What if surrendering to faith could lead you through the most daunting trials of life? Join us as we delve deep into the awe-inspiring story of Denise Dallatory, a woman who found faith amidst tumultuous life challenges. Raised in upstate New York, Denise grappled with the tragic loss of her father at a tender age of seven, navigated through rebellious youth, and encountered tumultuous relationships. A profound shift occurred in her life, not just when she became a mother, but when her son shared his startling recollection of a previous life and return to heaven. This divine revelation nudged Denise towards a deeper relationship with God, setting the stage for her life-altering journey.
In a tale of resilience and survival, Denise recounts her daunting battle with terminal cancer. She was sent home with a death sentence, but chose to embrace faith over fear. Miracles unfolded, and amidst the gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, Denise emerged victorious, her survival a testament to her unwavering faith. Denise’s story is more than just a tale of survival - it's an unforgettable journey from a death sentence to a beacon of hope and faith, a testament to the power of belief and strength of the human spirit.
After witnessing her miraculous survival, Denise embarked on a mission to inspire others battling cancer. Through her website, California Cancer Connection, she provides hope, resources, and a platform for sharing personal testimonies. Denise firmly believes that these shared narratives play a pivotal role in fostering a connection with the Creator. She further emphasizes the importance of patience and trust in God's plan, a wisdom she attributes to her own experiences. Tune in to this riveting episode to discover how Denise found peace amidst life's toughest challenges, and be inspired by her remarkable journey of faith, resilience, and hope.
How's it going, family and friends? I'm here on the Feeling Faith podcast, where we encourage, inspire and motivate people to share their testimonies for Christ. I'm here with Denise Dallatory. She has a phenomenal story. I'm so excited to hear it. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm fantastic. Thank you for making the drive out here.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it yeah.
Speaker 1:So you have a phenomenal testimony. I've only heard a little bit of it. I know there's a whole bigger piece in art to it, but let's start at the beginning. Tell me a little bit about your upbringing. What was your life like in your beginning, early stages of development, and did you have any influence of Christ early on in your life? Let's start from square one.
Speaker 2:All right, I was raised in a really small town in upstate New York and I was raised Catholic. Of course I went to church, but as a young person back then especially I'm 63. So they wrote, they read directly from the Bible and it wasn't relatable to me as a young person. And so I was raised with Christ and belief in God, but I didn't really practice my religion. And my child, who was pretty traumatic my dad died when I was seven and it was a car train accident. So it was horrific and I remember him leaving to go to work that morning and I was standing at the window as a little girl and I said goodbye to him, but I didn't kiss him goodbye that day and he never came back.
Speaker 2:And from that point forward, my life it was devastating for me. I was raised by my mom. She was a single parent and we had a tumultuous relationship and I left home at a young age and never looked back. And had God been in my life and my father, my biological father, been there for me, I'm sure my life would have been a lot easier. But I was a rebel and I looked to. I got myself in bad situations let's put it that way with people who were looking out for my best interest, so it was hard.
Speaker 1:The father figure, as we all know, is a very important piece in every family dynamic, and so the lack of having your father there and his presence had led you to a little bit of lack of discipline, I'm sure. And allowed you to go a little more on the disobedience side of the spectrum and several dysfunctional relationships with men because I didn't have my father there.
Speaker 2:My first husband, my love of my life. I fell in love with him in my early 20s and he ended up dying. He became addicted to drugs and I lost him and that was a devastating. And then I met my son's dad and I always say he was the best of the worst. Forgive me, Henry, I can't listen.
Speaker 2:But he was a really good guy. When my son was born, I determined to be the mother that I never had and I was going to be the best parent that I could and nurture that young man. And we had a dysfunctional marriage and I ended up leaving him and when my son was only five, again. It was a struggle. I struggled through my whole life with no guidance and no family there to support me.
Speaker 1:During that time you weren't aware of the lack of guidance, the lack of support and the influence that having a father and those relationships that really helped build character and build us and create us into who we are. So how did your upbringing lead you into a place where you found Christ and found like a real relationship with God? Tell me a little bit about your story and what was it. What was that critical moment? Where you were like God, I need you.
Speaker 2:God was always there. He was always knocking at the door, he was always trying to get my attention that I wasn't paying attention, right, god gave us free will, and so I remember one time one of the women that I knew from church. She said to me you have to surrender. And I said I can't surrender. That's a sign of weakness, right? I didn't understand what surrendering to God really meant.
Speaker 2:So I think one of the pivotal points in my life was when I gave birth to my son. I didn't expect to have a child. We had a child right after we got married, and when I held that baby in my arms it was just so much love, like a miracle. It was a miracle. And I remember crying in the nurse coming in and going, oh no, why the tears? And I'm like he's so beautiful and she goes oh good, because many women have post-traumatic stress syndrome and things like that. But they don't come out so great looking, honestly, they come out funny looking, but he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And from that day forward I had purpose. I had a reason to take care of myself, because I had to be the best mother to that little boy, and so that was a pivotal point in my life.
Speaker 2:And then, at the age of three, he told me about living here before and having to go back to heaven. And I asked him about that because I didn't want to deter him, because I knew he was special. He was born with this big cleft in his chin, right here. He had a big dimple and when he was born the nurse said, oh look, he's been touched by an angel and I believe that he was sent by God. He was sent to me as a gift from heaven. But he talked about living here before and having to go back to heaven. And I said what happened to you? And he said, mommy, the two little tubes that go down to your tummy. And I said yeah, and he goes. Something was wrong with one of those and I had to go back.
Speaker 2:And I said did you go back to heaven? And he said yes, and I said did you see my dad there? Because his grandpa would be there, I'm sure. And he said yes, mommy, I saw grandpa there. And I said did he say something? Because now I'm really curious. If you were there, I want to know. Give me more information. And he says yeah. He said someday you will be my son.
Speaker 2:And I said, oh, really, okay. And I go well, what did grandpa look like? And he said, mommy, he was beautiful like a woman. So I don't know how a three year old would know anatomy first of all, right, because his life was like tally-tubbies, basically right, watching cartoons. And I don't know how he would equate a man to be beautiful like a woman other than that everything in heaven must be just beautiful. And I remember calling his dad we were still together at the time and saying hey, ricky told me the story about being in heaven. And he said Denise, he's an old soul. He said he always knew he was an old soul. So that was a pivotal point in my life because I believed him. He couldn't have made that up.
Speaker 1:Like, where'd you get that from? Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And then I divorced his dad when he was only five. We had a dysfunctional, like I said, he was the best of the worst that I'd met. I'd been with him in my life and I put my son before him and before my need to be in a relationship with a man and I devoted, like I said, my heart and soul into raising a well-adjusted young kid and I wasn't about to raise him in a dysfunctional home and have him damaged by our dysfunction. When he was five years old, I ended up divorcing his dad and that was down. That was back in 07 and 08 when the mortgage crisis happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the whole economy started taking a shift.
Speaker 2:The market was took a crash and I was in mortgages. I was doing loans at the time, and so I was out of a job for about six months, and that was devastating. I didn't have any money, I couldn't get a job. They weren't hiring loan officers, right? No?
Speaker 1:there's no jobs for you guys.
Speaker 2:And I remember having this very vivid dream of my father, who died when I was seven. Came to me in a dream and I was looking at him as clearly as I'm looking at you and I was recognized the color of his eyes, the wrinkles in his skin and I felt this overwhelming feeling of love and I remember crying and he spoke to me and he said why are you crying? And I said because I love you so much. And he said, Denise, everything's going to be OK. And I woke up crying and still feeling that feeling of immense, intense love. And looking back at it now I realized that wasn't my father, that was Jesus, coming to me in the image of my father, telling me at the lowest point in my life that everything is going to be OK. Did I still turn to God at that time? Was everything OK? Did I get through it? Yes. Did I turn to God even after that experience? No, I didn't.
Speaker 1:That wasn't the moment. That wasn't the moment.
Speaker 2:No, that wasn't the moment.
Speaker 1:So you had that dream, you felt the presence of the Lord, you felt the love of Christ, the peace of Christ, and still continue down the same path.
Speaker 2:Paths destruction.
Speaker 1:The path of destruction and distraction.
Speaker 2:Because that's what the enemy is good at.
Speaker 1:He's good at distracting us. So tell me what, really, at what point in that path and in that journey did you really come to find crying?
Speaker 2:This is going to be the hard part to talk about because it's very emotional for me, but when I was 56 years old in 2015, I got diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 1:And what kind of cancer?
Speaker 2:It was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and they call that the silent killer, because by the time you have symptoms, typically the cancer is pretty well advanced. When I got diagnosed I had 32 tumors and they were through my whole entire body. So when I got the diagnosis they said you're going to go through chemotherapy, You've got the good kind of cancer. I didn't know there was a good kind. Cancer is cancer, but what do you mean, the good kind? And they said there's a 60% cure rate with chemotherapy. And I said no, I'd rather die than go through chemotherapy. So I'm the rebel right that I am.
Speaker 2:I went to a holistic treatment center in San Diego and they did mind, body and soul healing and I believe that healing is multifaceted right. It's not just medicine, it is mind, body and soul. So I tried to address some of my inner demons and I couldn't even stay the two weeks there. The cancer flared up and it got really painful and I realized I had no choice but to go through chemotherapy. So I left after three days and drove home and I lived in a little tiny house and Laguna Canyon as a time and I was all by myself, estranged from my family.
Speaker 2:No husband, just my young son, who was 21 at the time, and I remember really feeling horrible, that I really let God down because I wasn't going to try to survive and I realized at that time that it wasn't up to me whether I live or died. It was up to God gave me life and when my days were numbered and my time is up, he's going to take me home. So I got down on my hands and knees on the ground and I screamed out his name and I said Jesus, please save me. I said I am so sorry that I didn't want to live because it's not up to me and please don't take me away from my son. That boy needs me in his life and I feared leaving my son more than the chemotherapy. So that's when I decided to fight.
Speaker 1:Love it. Yeah, love it. Obviously that was probably the most pivotal moment in your life and in the experiences even going through the hardships with losing a father and divorces and that. But those are all hard things, those can all be traumatic experiences, but it took literally a death sentence. It took a death sentence for you to really call it. Get on your knees.
Speaker 2:Surrender, surrender, surrender.
Speaker 1:And just give it to God. This is your life. God you gave me life. I love that. That's amazing. So tell me a little bit about like that experience, how I could only imagine how you were feeling. Like, how did you overcome those emotions and what? Obviously your son was a pivotal piece and component of the fight and your willpower to continue to live. But, like, how were you feeling during that time, like when you got the diagnosis and you were working through all of this in turn?
Speaker 2:I will have to say it was devastating. It was the most devastating thing I'd ever gone through, when I was petrified, right, but I call them my God stories. Every day I would pray, every day I would wake and thank you, thank Jesus, that I was alive. If I had a question, somebody would come into my life with the answer Complete strangers. We lived across from the park and I had a puppy at the time and I would walk my dog in the park and I remember one day I was worried about the radiation therapy. I thought, oh, radiation is going to kill me, and I radiologist. I ended up meeting her and she ended up talking to me and whatever question I had, god brought somebody in my life with an answer for me.
Speaker 2:And I went through chemotherapy. I was supposed to go through four rounds and the cancer was going to be gone and I, by the way, I never got sick. I did lose all my hair and my eyelashes and my eyebrows, but I never once was sick. And I've talked to people who were couldn't lift their head off a pillow during chemo, but I was never sick, which was a miracle. A miracle. And after the four rounds of chemo they said okay, you should be clear. I wasn't clear. I had a partial remission. I was through two 96 hour infusions of chemotherapy, straight infusions, hooked up to that machine, for a week straight and I was hospitalized both times, never got sick, walked out of the hospital and went to work the next day and then I went in to get the PET scan, thinking oh for sure, now, right, god has cured me, right. I know now, after two 96 hours infusions, that it's gone.
Speaker 2:And so I walked into the exam room and met the doctor and she couldn't look me in the eye and I knew, when she couldn't look me in the eye, that it was bad news. So I said to her I can tell by the look in your eyes not very good news. And she said she just shook her head, no, and I said what are you saying? I have a 21 year old son at home. And she said you have six months to live, make plans.
Speaker 2:And so I was alone there and you would think, yeah, you would have thought I would have crumpled up on the ground in a ball and cried, but I didn't. I got angry and I looked at her and I pointed at her like this and I said I have a question for you Do you believe in God? And she looked at the ground and I said no, I demand you answer me while I'm in this room and I'm your patient. I want to know do you believe in God? And she said no. And I said why? She said because I'm a medical doctor. I said OK, I'm going to tell you something. I believe in God. Where there's God, there's hope, and I'm going to keep fighting this disease until there's no more hope.
Speaker 1:And then I got my all of my records and I walked out and never went back to her Wow, that is phenomenal and good for you for sharing that and having that willpower and that strength and that time of no hope and for somebody to give you that type of information. That's got to be devastating. To tell you you have six months, figure out your life and go live it Like because that's all the time you got. I think that's so amazing and it's a little sad cause. There's so many probably a lot of our viewers right now are out there that have had similar experiences and then when you hear those words from somebody and you accept that as truth, like that's gonna kill you alone if you accept that right.
Speaker 1:You're just gonna give up, throw it in the towel and wave your white flag and say I'm done.
Speaker 2:I had a 0.001% chance of survival, so I'm pretty sure 99.9% of the people out there who got sent home to die are not sitting here talking to you today, and that's why it's so important for me to let people know that if you surrender to God and you have the faith and the wherewithal, he will give you the wisdom on what to do.
Speaker 1:Hey, man, that's so true. So after that experience, you walked out. You said, okay, this fight is not over, this is not over, I will continue to fight till the end. And then what happened?
Speaker 2:The next miracle happened. Right, it was miracle after miracle. So the next God story is that I was in real estate at the time when I was going through the chemotherapy. I happened to be talking to a client and I was too sick to show the property. And so I said, ed, I'm really sorry, I went through chemo today and I just don't feel up to showing the property. Do you mind if I just sit in the car and let the other agent look at the home? And he said sure, and so he knew what was going on. And he said I have this article I wanna share with you. But okay, so it was an article, and I'll never forget the dates.
Speaker 2:I was diagnosed in June of 2015, close to the 14th, which was my birthday. I was sent home to die in December of 2015. But in October 18th of 2015, he gave me an article that was in the LA Times about a clinical trial that was being held at UCLA and it was called CAR T-cell therapy. It was the first of its kind immune therapy, where they actually genetically engineer yourselves to kill the cancer. And so when he gave me that article in October, I said I'm gonna hold on to this, just in case, just in case I need it. But the chemo's gonna work, because they told me you have a good kind of cancer, chemo's gonna work. So then the chemo fell.
Speaker 2:So I pull out the article and then I called the National Cancer Institute of Technology and I said, okay, I need to get in this clinical trial. And I said who? What hospital in California has it? And there was only two 25 across the nation and two in California. So I called the first one and they had the slot filled. They called it a slot position, right. And then the next one was UCLA. So I called UCLA and I said I need to talk to whoever's in charge of clinical trial.
Speaker 2:It took me four tries. They kept putting me on hold and then another person would get on the phone. And then they put me on hold and I said listen, I just need to talk. I don't have time to I only have six months to live. I need to talk to somebody who knows about this trial, please. And so then the next person that got on the phone was Dr Timmerman at UCLA and he was running the clinical trial. And I said hi, dr Timmerman, I'm Denise Dolatory and I'm the perfect patient for your CAR T cell clinical trial, and he actually laughed at me, right Cause that's not how you get in a clinical trial, right? You don't. The patients don't do the research and then call you.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, they were enrolling January 18th, failed the chemotherapy end of December, enrolling in this miraculous clinical trial January 18th, and I got in, and I had to qualify to get in too. So I had to have the perfect blood work and then everything had to be perfect, right. So the timing had to be perfect. I had to live in Southern California, how UCLA had to have the trial. It had to come about right when the chemotherapy failed, and then that doctor had to answer the phone. Right, I had to have the tenacity to not say take no for an answer and get through to that man. So I was the first patient in the clinical trial, and that was in April, I think. I went through the clinical trial of 2016 and eight years later, here I am.
Speaker 1:Here you are, here I am the walking miracle.
Speaker 2:It is a walking miracle. It's a miracle.
Speaker 1:Some divine appointments right, Like we discussed before. Divine timing and just all God's timing.
Speaker 2:It's God's timing right and I always wanted to tell my story from a spiritual aspect. I've done a lot of interviews about the medical technology, but I know that if it wasn't for God, I wouldn't be here. First of all, he gave me the will to live. He brought me a miracle child into my life, and he kept giving me signs all along the way. I just wasn't listening. And so my son said to me Mom, do you think, are you mad at God for giving you cancer? And I said no, honey, because cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. It changed my entire life. Yeah, the best thing that ever happened. I never thought I would say those words, but it I was slowly killing myself and I'm not the same person that I was before I got cancer.
Speaker 1:That's incredible Renewed hope, renewed faith, renewed relationships. I'm sure I could only imagine your perspective now and tell me a little bit. You've got to have more appreciation for the times you do have with your boy and with your friends and the rest of your family. It's got to just be such a different lens you're looking through right.
Speaker 2:Yes, the veil has been lifted and my eyes have been open to the Lord, our God. Every morning, when I get up, I look at the sky and I say thank you, jesus.
Speaker 1:That's the first thing that I do.
Speaker 2:And if I don't say it first thing in the morning, I say it later in the day and say oops, sorry, I didn't tell you. I read a passage every morning. Now I have two dogs that I walk every morning and there's a yellow rose bush on my path to the park and I always stop and smell the flowers. The sky looks a little bluer to me now. The ocean is a little bit bluer. I look at the fresh grass growing.
Speaker 2:We get so caught up in all the things going on in the world that we don't look at all the little tiny things that are the miracles, the beauty that God has provided to us on this earth. And I know now that when my time does come, that I am going to go to spend eternity in heaven with the Lord, and I already know how beautiful heaven is going to be, because I felt that immense love it's hard for me to talk about and put into words, because that feeling of God's love is so powerful and so immense. So it's just, my eyes have been opened to the beauty of God's love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it all came through relationship right. And what I love about your story is it wasn't somebody coming smacking you around with a Bible telling you hey, you got to do this, you got to go to church, you got to follow these commandments or anything like that. It was through your personal experience, your personal testimony and what God had allowed you to go through right, because God allowed it for the building of your character and truly of your faith, which is the essence of life, when you look at it like that's why we're here is to build in our faith, share our personal testimonies and to be a person who encourages and inspires and motivates other people to grow closer in their relationship with God, our creator. And so I love that. So tell me now what, speaking of purpose, what is your new purpose?
Speaker 2:Well, while you were talking, I was thinking about it and I just wanted to say it like out loud that I think God not only did he give me renewed hope, right and faith and inspiration. What I want to do is offer that to other people. Now I have this burning desire very down deep inside to offer hope and inspiration to other people. I'm starting a little website. It's going to be called California Cancer Connection. I'm looking for funding now and figuring a way to get that up and running, but I want to offer a resource to cancer patients, because it is such a devastating thing to hear the word cancer. You all think you think you're going to die, whether they tell you are not. A good percentage of people don't make it right, especially a lot of children too. But there's a lot of resources out there.
Speaker 2:I happen to be very resourceful and I'd like to be able to help other people. That's my goal now. I am a realtor and I probably always will be a realtor, but my hope and dream is to be able to inspire and give other people hope when they feel that there is none. If I can do it, they can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. And healing is multifaceted. It is a mind, body, soul, experience. I would absolutely not have had the will to survive if God hadn't been present in my life, through even the turmoil that I went through, the loss of my father, the end of my marriage, but the birth of my son and him talking about being in heaven, those are things that you just can't make up. Those are undeniable signs from the Lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, it's very true, and that's why we started this podcast so that we can hear amazing stories and testimonies like this and get the perspectives that people don't really hear too often. I truly feel that's what we're called to do is to share our personal testimonies. We're not here to go preach at people and tell them why they have to do this or why they have to do that. I think we're here to share our stories and what God has truly done in our lives and how he's transformed our hearts. And your story is just very touching, amazing. So many God things happen in your life.
Speaker 2:My God stories. I had miracle after miracle and I think, god, sometimes we need to quiet our mind. That's what I've learned. We need to quiet our minds because we're so busy, right, and you can't hear God speak to you. When you're constantly your mind is going right, you need to just quiet your mind, and sometimes he speaks in a whisper. I didn't listen to the whisper. He had to give me a death sentence for me to listen to him. But I would prefer for people to try to learn from my mistakes right In my horrific experience and not have to go to that point to turn to God. It would my life would have been entirely different if I had known him sooner.
Speaker 1:I know that for a fact your path was not something that you planned, but God knew what was happening and he brought you home right.
Speaker 2:And he's gonna bring you home home one day, and in his timing, and the doctor doesn't get to say when that clock that's right and over that's absolutely right and I can't tell you how many people I've talked to you who who have lost all hope because of their doctor. As a matter of fact, three years after they sent me home to die, that hospital called me to check up on me and I asked to speak to the medical director and I said you hadn't, she had no right telling me that. And he said what was the message that you want to get through to me, denise? And I said that woman had no right taking away my hope.
Speaker 2:Just because she didn't believe in God Doesn't mean that I don't believe in God. And where there's God, there's hope. Hope is the anchor of the soul. So I I may say, were you angry with her? People say you should call and tell. I said no, I pray for her because she doesn't believe in God and she's gonna have a tragedy in her life we all do, and she's who is she gonna turn to? So I do pray for her. I have no animosity or hatred in my heart for anyone, because that's of the devil.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's right, I love that. You said healing is Mind, body and soul, and that is so true. And it all begins in the mind. That's right and that's rude. That's where the enemy wants to attack.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's his little tools and his little tactics, and the devil is the great deceiver.
Speaker 1:That's right. Get in the mind and then I can control.
Speaker 1:That's right here I can control and that's not of God. Fears not of God. And another thing that you mentioned to was Quieting our mind. The Lord says to be still and know that I am God, and that is so important. I've experienced in my own personal life and personal testimony is that when you're still and you quiet your mind and you go just spend time with God, getting out in natures, the best thing you can do get away from the distractions, away from the computer, your phone, turn it off, get away from all of it. Go spend some time with God and he'll speak to you.
Speaker 1:He will open up his word and he'll speak to you.
Speaker 2:It's absolutely true.
Speaker 2:There's so much dad going on in the world today, but I feel that there's a lot of hope in a lot of good too, and I think what's happening right now is a lot of people are becoming more aware of God, and that's what we need right now. We need stories of hope, we need stories of perseverance. Faith is something you have to practice every day. That's one thing that I've learned. It takes practice, and it's okay if you mess up, it's okay if you make a mistake, it's okay if you fall into that old pattern of behavior and thinking, because we're all human, right, but you have to practice and and believe and know, and the knowing is what gives you the strength to endure, the knowing that God is there and he's not gonna let you fall.
Speaker 1:That's right. The Bible says faith is a substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen. That's right. Faith is a substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, and you have a lot of experience of the unseen, and that faith has given you the hope right, and so it's just super amazing. So what is your biggest encouragement as we we get ready to wrap this up? What's your biggest encouragement to somebody who's going through Cancer? Maybe they just got a diagnosis, maybe they've been living with cancer for years. What is your biggest encouragement to them?
Speaker 2:I think that the thing that I struggled with I think the most is like we worry about the unknown. You need to hand your cares to God, and I am grateful for every single day, every moment. I think God wants us to be grateful and just acknowledging him on a daily basis, and I do read a passage of the Bible every morning and I just start my day out thanking Jesus. He will give you the strength if you ask and just whisper his name. I cried out pretty loud, jesus, pretty darn loud. But if you just whisper his name and have the faith of a mustard seed, that's all you need to endure. God will take care of you. He placed his hand on me. There is no doubt in my mind that God has his hand on me and when you know that and you're walking hand in hand with God, you can endure anything you went to school to be a model, I believe.
Speaker 1:Is that is that right? Okay, yes, I did.
Speaker 2:I was a rebel and I left home. When I was 18 and I grew up in a little country, cow Put it on town and I went straight to Miami to fashion college right to become a model. I never made it. It was never a Christi Brinkley. I think Christi Brinkley was the model of that era. But when I turned 61, I made the cover of Cancer Health magazine Amazing and I said God must have a good sense of humor because I never thought I'd be on the cover of magazine at 61 years of age.
Speaker 2:So he does have a good sense of humor as well.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. That's amazing, and you're right, he does have a sense of humor. He created humor. It is fascinating to see how he can breathe things. That was a miracle.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you, being on the cover of a magazine at 61 was a miracle, and that also gave hope and inspiration because it was distributed across the whole United States. So it was in waiting rooms where people could read my story.
Speaker 1:Amazing. That's amazing, and your story is still going strong. It's going to go even stronger and I'm confident that the more you continue to press into your purpose your new found goals and your vision for this new company and website and really building and bridging those gaps in relationships for other cancer patients and helping them find hope through Christ is only going to glorify and magnify God more, but it's also going to push you to a next level in your faith.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me and listening to my story. It was all in God's timing, right 100%.
Speaker 2:It took eight years for me to tell my story and, by the way, I had one tiny little tumor that kind of never went away, and in September of this last year I got the all clear. So I'd been really really still fighting the disease, and so the thing. The other thing is to be patient. I learned to be patient. It took eight years, but I never gave up the hope and faith in God that there would eventually be an all clear. You only need one person in your life and that's God.
Speaker 1:You only need one person in your life, and that's God. We put our faith and trust in people, and they're going to let us down sometimes out of 10.
Speaker 1:We're sinful as just our nature. It's okay, right, because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and he's here to restore us and have a relationship with us and really bridge that gap of our brokenness and fill that void in our hearts. And so you're right, 100%. We just need one person and that's. That's God, awesome. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Where can people find you?
Speaker 2:If you just Google my name, Denise Delatory, you can find me.
Speaker 1:Any social media channels. I'm starting a.
Speaker 2:YouTube channel, but I haven't gotten there quite yet. Again, I'm just trying to wait for God to give me the answers on the next thing to do, because, now that I've surrendered to him, I don't always know what's best or what's next. So I'm just waiting for him to open the next door for me.
Speaker 1:Patience is a virtue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I learned that I learned to be patient. I never used to be very patient. Most people in California are not very patient people right but I have learned to be patient and trust, yeah, so I'm not quite sure what's next. We'll see.
Speaker 1:All right, I love it. I'm excited to continue to follow your journey. Thank you, and continue to see how God uses you for his kingdom.
Speaker 2:And I wish you all the best too, and if I can come back, maybe I'll have even more miracles to talk about at a later date.
Speaker 1:We will definitely have you back on at some point, so we'd love that. Thank you, guys for tuning in to the Feeling Faith podcast, where we encourage, inspire and motivate people to grow closer in their relationship with God and share their personal testimonies. Make sure to follow us, subscribe and tune into the next one. We'll see you there.
