19-year-old Molly Oldham had a bright future in front of her but a sudden cancer diagnosis was threatening to derail her life.
Molly was said to have a brain tumor last year and the tennis-ball-sized tumor in her brain started causing seizures. “It was just like one after the other after the other,” Oldham said. “It was really hard.”
The Charlotte, North Carolina native said, “I just wanted to be a normal 19-year-old,” she said. “And when I was diagnosed with cancer, I realized, OK, that probably isn’t going to happen for a while.” She left school in order to get treated so that she would get better and continue to follow her passion. “I just want to, I want to do my craft,” Oldham said. “I want to sing with my friends, I want to dance with my friends. They didn’t know if I was going to be able to talk, to be able to dance. They didn’t know if I was going to be able to walk.”
Posted by Molly Oldham on Friday, September 13, 2019
The nurses supported whole-heartedly with singing or dancing along with their talented patient, “You have days you go to work and you have all these crazy things happen, and you’re exhausted and you feel like I’m not made for this, I’m not strong enough for this,” nurse Grace Perry said. “And then you have days where you go to work and you see Molly. There’s just nothing better than getting to spend time with people like her.”
“To have a lot of people, not just one or two, but a lot of people just let me be me, even in the hospital, sing with me dance with me make jokes with me, it was so relieving,” Oldham said. “Even if it was for a short amount of time. I just got to be me.” One nurse, David Duckett, surprised Molly with his talented singing, and the video of them singing together has become viral. “To have moments like that makes you feel like yes, this is this is my why, why I do this day in and day out,” Duckett said. “This is why we do what we do.”
“Just singing with him just brought me so much joy,” Molly explained. “Like even thinking about it, I’m just smiling.” Oldham said, “Everyone has something that brings them down, everyone has a challenge in life,” Oldham said. “But if you can just hold on to those things that are good … if you can find something that brings you joy, and you can hold on to that — your life is going to be so much brighter.” Molly Oldham is now completely free of cancer and is pursuing what she loves to do the most in her life- singing.
