Aggie's Story
July 22, 2010
Mrs. Aggie Summers, 35, resident of the Somerville Community and wife of Jay Summers died at the family residence. A funeral mass for Mrs. Summers will be at 3:30 PM Friday at St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church on Hwy 64 with a visitation at the church from 5 to 7 PM Friday. Funeral services for Mrs. Summers will be 10 AM Saturday at the First Baptist Church in Somerville. Interment will be in the Liberty Cemetery at Laconia and arrangements will be provided by Peebles Main Funeral Chapel at Somerville.
St. Philip Catholic Church
11710 Highway 64
Somerville, TN
901-465-8685
First Baptist Church of Somerville
12685 South Main Street
Somerville, TN
901-465-3528
Interment at Liberty Cemetery in Laconia, Tennessee immediately following the service.
http://www.peeblesfuneralhome.com/index.cfm
In lieu of flowers or gifts, please consider one of the following:
For a tax deductable donation that will go directly to support the education of Ava and Dutch Summers -
Fayette Academy FBO The Summers Family
495 Joyners Campground Drive
Somerville, TN 38068
For a donation to assist with medical expenses and housing needs -
Aggie's Hope
495 Joyners Campground Drive
Somerville, TN 38068
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July 21, 2010
Aggie has gone Home to be with God. She left us early this morning.
Once arrangements are confirmed, I will let everyone know.
In lieu of flowers and gifts, please make a donation to:
Fayette Academy
Fayette Academy FBO The Summers Family
Please mail checks to:
Aggie’s Hope
95 Joyner Campground Drive
Somerville, TN 38068
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Update as of July 20, 2010
Aggie is home now and surrounded by her loving family and close friends. As painful as the past year and a half has been for everyone, Aggie’s strength, positive outlook and faith in God has kept everyone around her at ease. Being in her presence leaves one with a calm and peaceful feeling as she prepares to meet her Lord. Her children are with her now as well. From the beginning her husband, children and parents have always been her main concern and now as the time approaches, she continues to worry about her children. They are the reason she has fought as hard as she has over the past year.
While prayers are necessary and appreciated, we would like to share with everyone another way you can help this family. Donations in the name of the Summers Family to Fayette Academy are tax deductible and are greatly needed at this very difficult time.
Tuition for Ava for the 2010 school year is: $5900 (excluding any extra curricular activities and supplies), and child care for Dutch is about $400 a month. Once Dutch starts school (2011), the tuition amount will double.
No donation is too small and all gifts will go directly to the benefit of the children’s education.
Please make checks payable to:
Fayette Academy FBO The Summers Family
Please mail checks to:
Aggie’s Hope
495 Joyner Campground Drive
Somerville, TN 38068
A letter of acknowledgement will be provided and will serve as your tax receipt.
Thank you is not enough to the people of Fayette Academy and the amazing citizens of Somerville. They have gone above and beyond to support this wonderful family. All of Aggie’s friends and family couldn’t make all of these things possible without them.
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Aggie's Story...
Agatha (Aggie) Barnes Summers, a young mother of two has been courageously fighting triple negative stage three breast cancer since November of 2008. After three weeks of being in remission, in August 2009, she went back to the hospital. An MRI showed mulitple tumors on her brain.
We don’t want to give the cancer center stage because what is important is Aggie and her family, not the disease she is fighting. As a cardiovascular ICU nurse at Methodist Germantown in Tennesse, Aggie has nurtured many back to health and has gone above and beyond to check on patients even after their release from the hospital.
Her parents, Chuck and Mary Barnes of Pocahontas, Arkansas have been by her side not only her entire life, but especially the last several months. She has a loving and supportive husband, Jay, and two wonderful little children, a daughter, 6 years old and a son, 3 years old. Jay's parents, Tommy and Beverly Summers and Jay's sibling's of Somerville, Tennessee have been a huge support system to the children and Jay and Aggie.
Aggie’s main goal today is to spend as much time with her family and friends as she can. Our goal is help Aggie and her family every way we can. She has touched many of our lives and we owe to her our prayers and support.
Unfortunately, medical bills and her children’s future weigh heavy on her mind. Many of us who know and love her have worked to set up AGGIE’S HOPE BENEFIT FUND. It’s a fund to raise awareness about breast cancer, raise funds to help with rapidly increasing medical bills, and most importantly, honor Aggie.
All donations will go directly to support Aggie’s medical bills and help support her children’s education and daily expenses. No gift is too small and everything helps.
To find out more about who is sponsoring this site, please click here.
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UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY, JULY 7th (by: Amy Koch):
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I wish this post was full of good news, so I will first speak about the not-so-good news and then focus on just the good.
Since we last communicated, Aggie has undergone multiple treatments including two Gamma Knife procedures to her brain. While her family thought the treatments were successful, and maybe they were - considering the team of doctors claims to see no new growth, the problems continue to persist with the lesions that were already there.
Aggie is in a tremendous amount of pain due to the swelling potentially caused by the enormous amount of radiation she has endured. So much pain, that she has trouble eating, walking and performing daily tasks. Luckily, her husband Jay, her parents Mary and Chuck, along with Jay’s family are there each day to help her and her children (Ava, who will be 7 on July 9th and Dutch, 3).
I don’t know that there is a “prognosis” at this point. Her mother has asked for everyone to PRAY. Pray that the swelling goes down. That is key right now. She is a candidate for brain surgery to remove the pressure, but obviously, this is not something the doctors – nor Aggie – want to do at this point unless it is absolutely necessary.
So there is the not-so-good news. Now for the good news…
I was visiting with her this past weekend and I am happy to say that she still has her humor, her wit, her sarcasm, her unbelievable love for her family and continued faith that God will help everyone through this.
On Monday, July 5th, Carrie Wilkinson and I went to visit with her. She had been at the doctor all morning and was very tired and in a lot of pain. While we tried not to disturb her too much, we just sat with her by the bed and cracked jokes and looked at her plethora of catalogs (when a woman still wants to shop – you know she is okay). Before she fell in to a sound sleep, she gave Carrie and I both a book that her mother had given her, which she explained to us the meaning (and I think I will keep that moment with her all to myself)… in a nut shell this is what keeps her going:
Aggie’s excerpt from:
A Devotional Diary
GOD CALLING
Edited by: AJ RUSSELL
Way of Happiness
Complete surrender of every moment to God is the foundation of happiness, the superstructure is the joy of Communion with Him. And that is, for each, the place, the mansion, I went to prepare for you.
My followers have misunderstood that, and looked too often upon that promise as referring only to an After-life, and too often – far too often – upon this life as a something to be struggled through, in order to get the reward and the joy of the next.
Seek to carry out all I say, and such understanding, insight, vision and joy will be yours as shall pass indeed all understanding. The plans of God are very wonderful – beyond your highest hopes.
Cling to thoughts of protection, safety, guidance.
Aggie says to read this. And re-read it. Until you understand it and if you aren’t going to read it – then she told Carrie and I to give the darn book back. I love her.
Recent News
March 2010
Mary Grace Huffman, daughter of Billy and Rebie Huffman
of Memphis, celebrated her 10th birthday this
year. In lieu of gifts, Mary Grace, selflessly requested
donations be made to Aggie's Hope. Because of her
efforts, Mary Graces' friends and family made a donation
of $280 to Aggie's Hope! She is a sweet child and Aggie's
Angels hopes others will learn by her example!
10/24/2009 - Aggie's Update
Aggie's Hope Somerville Golf Tournament
When: Saturday, November 7, 8am
Where: Somerville Country Club
Cost: $50/ per person or $200/team
Door prizes, Giveaways and a Silent Auction
Lunch will be provided for players
Email us at aggieshope@gmail.com for more information or to register.
Please visit our events page for more information.
10/24/2009 - Aggie's Update
Benefit at The Brookhaven Pub for Aggie's Hope!
Saturday, October, 17th
The event at the Brookhaven was a huge success! We raised a significant amount of money for Aggie's Hope. Aggie's Angels would like to thank everyone who attended and contributed. Aggie and her family are so appreciative of everyone's donations and prayers. A special thank you to Christy Spell Forman and The Brookhaven Pub for allowing us to have our event and for their generous donation to Aggie's Hope, we couldn't have done this without them or their wonderful staff.
9/22/2009 - Aggie's Update
This week Aggie got her results from her MRI. The tumors have shrunk 30% to 60%. The next step is the gama knife procedure. Aggie wants to thank everyone for all of their prayers. Aggie has been spending a lot of time with her children and her family the last few weeks. She is staying busy and she is in good spirits!
Please check out our events page, as we have events that are starting to be posted!
9/11/2009 - Aggie's Update
This week was a busy one for Aggie! She celebrated her son's 3rd birthday (she always makes the cutest homemade cakes - we will have to upload some pictures to the photo gallery soon). Her son moved in to a big bed! She is trying to build up her energy by taking naps in between taking care of her children and helping her husband. Her spirit is strong and her outlook is positive and she just asks that everyone continues to pray for her family. Aggie has a MRI scheduled for Tuesday, September 15th, this will let us know how successful the radiation treatments are thus far. The Aggie's Hope team will keep you posted!
9/2/2009 - New Website Launch
On 9/2/2009, we launched our new website. We invite you to take a look around the website and tell your friends to come see us too by using our new Spread the Word website tool.