Positivity: Cancer Survivor’s Story Inspires Others

From Kansas City:

Sat, Jul. 28, 200

They’ve taken her left kidney. They’ve taken part of the bone in her left leg. They’ve taken the hair on her head — nine times.

It began with a skin condition: redness and discoloration on her chest. There were tests, then the words that have shaped her life ever since: inflammatory breast cancer.

That was in 1996. At the time of her diagnosis, the average survival rate for women with inflammatory breast cancer was three years.

Karen Spengler isn’t supposed to be here.

A skeleton hovers in the air, not far from Karen Spengler’s head. Skulls grin from shelves. Tombstones loom. A door that leads from the bookstore into the staff kitchen reads, “Samuel Spade, Private Investigator.”

“We call it ‘Victorian library with a twist,’ ” Spengler says.

Spengler, 55, owns I Love a Mystery, 6114 Johnson Drive in Mission. On the awning are the words “Books to Die For.” It’s one of the few independent booksellers left in the area. I Love a Mystery sells only suspense — thrillers — or at least that’s the focus. It has some true crime, some kids’ books — Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys.

Spengler’s presence in the store today is an event; her cancer doesn’t allow her to be here much. Today, though, the sharp aromas of coffee and tea scent the air, and she sits at a table where browsers are encouraged to relax and read.

Her customers sometimes bring her “ghoulish things” that fit the macabre decor. And mystery books, by definition, must have a dead body. This could weigh on a person who battles a disease that almost surely will kill her.

Spengler smiles. “I never thought about the connection till you brought it up.”

And that, say those who know her, is Karen Spengler.

Carol Nichols of Overland Park attends Spengler’s support group at Turning Point, a resource center for cancer survivors. Nichols, too, had inflammatory breast cancer, then a second breast cancer in 2002. Unlike Spengler, who has been in treatment almost constantly for a decade, Nichols has been cancer-free for five years.

Yet it’s Spengler, Nichols says, who is the group’s emotional spark plug. She has boosted the group’s social aspect, starting card games, encouraging weekend getaways.

Becci West, manager at I Love a Mystery and Spengler’s friend for more than three decades, says cancer hasn’t changed her.

“She has always been a strong, intelligent, caring person,” West says. “She’s never wavered. I’m telling you, she should be a poster child for getting through adversity. She never complains.”

Spengler, who lives in Kansas City, has plenty to complain about. Instead, words like “lucky” come up.

Go here for the rest of the story.