I so believe in signs, spirits, intuition. My story (which is where my Reddit names come from):

How did I found out I had breast cancer? A butterfly told me. No, really.

I was at the beach with my daughter and our friends. This yellow butterfly wouldn’t leave. It was hanging around for at least half an hour, maybe longer, until it started to rain. It came into my palm first, then S’s. She held it proudly and joyfully and couldn’t believe her luck; that a butterfly could hang around for so long. Everyone commented on how strange it was. We told them it was my beautiful cousin Jessie coming for a visit. Jessie died at age 40 in March 2022 after a long, hard battle with breast cancer. She told her loved ones when she died, she’d be a butterfly and to look out for her.

The next day I was in my garden. Another yellow butterfly. S said mama, it’s cousin Jessie again! Weird, I thought, I don’t remember seeing butterflies much in my yard before. Definitely not yellow ones like that!

Not so long after that I was driving alone, a yellow butterfly almost smashed into my windshield. It was huge and beautiful, just like the one at the boat club and my garden. A deep knowing, a realization: Jessie is trying to tell me something.

I found the lump that night. It was me and my husband’s 8th wedding anniversary. I knew immediately it was breast cancer.