ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 TAG: 9703250066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: STACY HAWKINS ADAMS RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Lisa Swearengen received a standing ovation and cheers from the audience.
The best part of Lisa Swearengen's graduation turned out to be the hugs she received from her daughters for the first time in weeks.
After a reunion with the girls in a hallway at Hermitage High School in Henrico County, Swearengen's wheelchair stroll across the stage to accept her nursing diploma was icing on the cake.
Swearengen, a 36-year-old Varina resident and cancer patient, received a standing ovation and cheers from the audience, which included relatives who traveled from Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee for this month's graduation.
``I can't describe what I feel,'' she said after the ceremony. ``I'm just elated [and] blessed.''
Swearengen is fighting cancer that invaded her left breast in November 1995 before spreading to her right lung last November.
Throughout her illness, she remained in the Henrico County-St. Mary's Hospital School of Practical Nursing five days a week to obtain a licensed practical nurse degree.
Since March 9, she has been treated at St. Mary's for pneumonia.
Until her graduation last week, Swearengen had not seen her oldest girl, 13-year-old Alicia, since her hospitalization. Her separation from her 4-and 5-year-old daughters had been even longer because both had contracted chicken pox, which her immune system could not tolerate.
The two youngest girls clung to Swearengen's wheelchair as she explained that mommy was graduating. A nurse placed wheelchair-bound Alicia, who has cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic, next to her mother for a hug.
Swearengen was beaming.
She got a reprieve from her sixth-floor hospital room to participate in the graduation ceremony, but doctors ordered her to return immediately afterward.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB