WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — "She was super compassionate, loving, and helped a lot of people throughout her life," Ernie Parrish said about his late wife Erin who died from breast cancer on September 23. "Everyone that met her loved her."
Ernie described him and his wife, Erin Westover Parrish of Williamsburg, as teammates who didn't keep score. They leaned on each other to tackle life's challenges. Ernie said his wife's positive outlook was a source of his strength.
Before the couple met, Erin was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 33 years old at the time.
After completing treatment, Erin was in remission. At the end of last year, she and Ernie were planning a wedding when an enlarged lymph node in her neck sent her to the doctor.
"She had an ultrasound the day after we got married, on the third of January," Ernie said. "On the fifth, they confirmed that it was metastatic breast cancer."
Ernie said the couple was blindsided by the recurrence, but they were a team and they were going to fight together.
"As a caregiver, I'm there to help provide and protect and support her in any way I can," Ernie said.
The couple worked with Erin's healthcare team to come up with a treatment plan. It included radiation and chemotherapy. For the first few months, Ernie said the treatment seemed to be working.
"Fast forward to about April or May, and she's doing really well," Ernie said.
But in August, while on vacation, Ernie said his wife woke up in terrible pain. By the time they arrived home, Erin needed to go straight to the hospital.
Ernie said that's when they received devastating news.
"There was another reoccurrence [of breast cancer], and it was invasively in her brain and her spinal column."
Erin spent the next three weeks in and out of the hospital. She passed away on September 23rd.
Ernie wants to carry his wife's torch by helping other people impacted by the disease.
A word of advice he has for patients and caregivers is to accept help from family, friends, and loved ones.
"I have a background in healthcare," said Ernie, who is a medic in the Army. "Even with my experience... all the resources I had on-hand, it still was an overwhelming task to try and care for Erin. And I couldn't imagine doing it alone."
"So, I would just implore people to lean onto the support networks within the community," Ernie said.
For Erin, one of those support networks was Here for the Girls. The Williamsburg-based nonprofit works to improve the lives of young women diagnosed with breast cancer.
"Here for the Girls was critical for Erin," Ernie said. "It gave her that group of women that had been through the same experience."
Ernie said the group also provided Erin with the space to continue doing what she loved: sharing compassion and support.
"Even up until the last few days, she was trying to help other people," Ernie said. He plans to keep Erin's mission going.
"Her legacy was giving people a voice that didn't have a voice," Ernie said. "And I want to continue to do that."
Click here to connect with Here for the Girls and learn more about the nonprofit.