The Frausto Collective

Becoming Her: Prayer is My Anchor

My Personal Trials & Tribulations

PRAYERHEALTHLIFESTYLE

9/6/20262 min read

A Long Road of Vigilance

Have you ever known something about your body long before it became your reality? Have you ever had to choose courage over comfort, again and again, just to keep living the life you love? What do you do when peace feels like something you have to fight for, on more than one front?

Some seasons ask everything of you before they hand you the lesson.

For most of my life, I've lived with a truth many women carry quietly. I am a BRCA breast cancer gene carrier. That single fact has shaped years of doctor visits, scans, biopsies, and tests, an ongoing vigilance most people never see. Two times now, I have faced breast cancer. Three times, I have chosen to fight.

The Fight Against Breast Cancer

This year, I'm taking the next step in that fight with a double mastectomy and reconstructive breast augmentation. It's a decision years in the making, built on countless appointments and a body of medical history that has taught me more about resilience than any book ever could.

If you've walked this road, the endless testing, the waiting rooms, the exhaustion that comes from simply staying alive and well, then you know. There's a particular kind of tired that only WARRIORS understand, and if that's you, I see you.

The Power of Family and Boundaries

What has carried me through every one of these seasons is my family. My husband and my children have been my anchor, showing up in the small moments and the terrifying ones, reminding me that love isn't loudest when things are easy. It's loudest when things are hard. I don't take that for granted, not for one second.

We've also had our share of outside noise, people who, for reasons that have nothing to do with us, seem determined to disturb our peace. I've learned that you don't have to respond to every provocation to know your worth, and that documenting quietly and living loudly is its own kind of power. Boundaries, I've found, are just another form of self-care.

Choosing Renewal

Becoming her, the woman on the other side of this surgery, this year, this chapter, means choosing renewal even when the road there is exhausting. It means letting gratitude and grit coexist. It means trusting that the story isn't over. It's just being rewritten.

More to come as this journey unfolds. Thank you for walking it with me.

With gratitude and grace,
Brunita Lilly.

Prayer is My Anchor. Only Warriors Understand.