On any given day you might find Norma Mendez doing a variety of things: lunching with friends, taking water aerobics, reading, attending church, petsitting, teaching vacation bible school, throwing a baby shower, doing “dinner and a movie” with her friends, volunteering, and more.

A retired executive recruiter, Norma has always been extremely active. So when she was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2005, she was devastated. But then she said to herself, “I’ve lived a long, full life so I am more than willing to see my Creator’s face if it is time.”

This faith has seen her through a challenging cancer journey. One that Norma feels was made easier with the help of The Zangmeister Center. “I felt so bad for my doctor to have to tell me I had cancer,” she said. “I asked him who he would send his own family to and he told me Dr. Luis Vacarello and The Zangmeister Center. So that’s where I went.”

“The Zangmeister Center has been so wonderful. At the reception desk you get the biggest smile and warmth. They know you by name and they care about you. You don’t have to sit around and wait. They try to keep to their schedule. It’s a very warm, loving and professional place.”

Through surgery and chemotherapy, Norma kept her head up and her spirits high. She even wrote a children’s book, “Nana, Where’d She Go?” With the help of a friend from church, she had illustrated and printed in honor of her granddaughter.

Her cancer experience has given Norma freedom, she says. “I no longer worry about trivial things. I am free of all that. Everything is brighter and better. I get up in the mornings and embrace each day. Life is so short and this has made me realize in an instant it all can change. I’m so much more aware of that now. We all should be aware of that.”