Cora Denise Stewart Lowe, known around Greenwood Middle School as Ms. Lowe, has been through a lot in the past few years — but she’s never missed an opportunity to give thanks for everything in her life, good and bad.
Lowe, 57, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last October, said she would be celebrating the gift of life this Thanksgiving.
“I’ve seen a lot; I’ve gone through a lot of experiences,” Lowe said. “I learned at a very early age that as a person, if you don’t go through anything, you won’t have a life. It’s the ups and the downs of your life that give you the experience of living.”
There have certainly been plenty of ups and downs for Lowe, who teaches reading at Greenwood Middle and also serves as a pastor at Bethlehem A.M.E. Church in Winona.
She grew up in Greenwood and attended Amanda Elzy High School, where her father, the late Conway Stewart, was the longtime basketball coach. She returned to her hometown as a Hurricane Katrina evacuee in 2005 after spending 25 years in New Orleans, where she worked as a teacher.
“I evacuated Saturday night at midnight before Katrina, and I’ve been back in Greenwood ever since,” Lowe said.
Those who remained in her neighborhood weren’t so lucky.
“In the neighborhood that I lived in, everybody that did not evacuate died in Katrina,” she said. “We were hit on both sides of our community by levee breaks.”
When she went back to view their home with her two daughters, Lowe found devastation. The storm not only destroyed Lowe’s home but also ended up costing her her teaching job. Her district was dissolved after the storm, and all employees were terminated.
So she remained in Greenwood, where she lived with her mother. While unemployed, she tried to make the most of her time, volunteering at the Juvenile Detention Center and the Community Food Pantry.
Still, the storm’s fallout wasn’t yet over for her. Her eldest daughter, Jessilena Amber Lowe, suffered from a chronic illness.
“The week Katrina hit, we had just finished some tests,” Lowe said.
In the wake of the storm, it took her two years to find her daughter’s medical records and test results and to locate the doctors who treated her. But then her daughter, a 22-year-old recent Alcorn State University graduate, died from her illness.
Lowe said her close relationship with God helped her get through those tough times and taught her to be thankful for everything.
“Going to Him time and time again, I learned the experiences of your life on the outside might look bad, but as you go through them you realize that everything that comes into your life comes into your life to bless you,” Lowe said. “You realize how much you learned by going through those experiences and how much you grow. You look back, and it allows you to think, ‘I went through that; I know I can go through this.’”
Lowe said she found a job again in May 2006, working as recruiter for GED programs at her alma mater, Mississippi Valley State University.
Then in January 2007, she was able to return to the classroom as a reading teacher at Greenwood Middle School.
“There isn’t anything I could ever dream of that is more rewarding than having the opportunity to touch the lives of a boy or girl,” Lowe said. “I don’t teach to make a living. I live to teach. It’s part of what makes me happy, keeps me healthy and makes me whole.”
In October of last year, she went in for her first wellness check, and the nurse practitioner discovered a growth in her breast.
“I’d noticed a mass, but I didn’t take it very seriously because I just thought I had lumpy breasts,” Lowe said. A mammogram and further testing revealed the lump to be cancerous.
Surgery and daily treatments in Jackson kept Lowe out of her classroom for a good portion of the year, but she was able to return to work just after spring break.
Even though she still wasn’t completely better, Lowe said working with her students kept her mind focused on her work and not her illness.
“A lot of days I went to school and didn’t feel very well, but when I closed my door and class began, everything that’s going on in my world outside the classroom stays outside the classroom,” she said.
Working with younger teachers at the school has also been a source of joy for Lowe. Now in her 30th year in the classroom, she’s one of the more experienced teachers on the staff.
“I really like helping new teachers to realize just how great they are, understanding what it’s like to be a new teacher and experiencing a lot of the frustrations that you face,” she said. “I like to be there to remind them that while it may not have gone as well as you wanted it to go, you are still doing a very good job.”
More than a year after her diagnosis, Lowe said it appeared she’d beaten breast cancer, but her health wasn’t necessarily in the clear yet. She was undeterred by any further challenges and felt she could survive any new challenges.
“I faith that God is going to see me through this just like he did last year,” she said. “In everything that I’ve gone through, I know that I am truly blessed, and I grateful to God for allowing me to be able to go through it.”
Lowe said she hoped others would take time this Thanksgiving — and in their daily lives — to be grateful for everything.
“Be thankful for the good things in your life, but also be thankful for the negative things because they are just as responsible for making you who you are as the good,” she said. “You really grow through your negative experiences — that’s where you learn your lessons — so be thankful for everything. Everything comes into your life to bless you. We might not feel like it, but it does.”
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
