Little Pink Houses of Hope: A Week to Remember

“Marco was just so beautiful, very different from my little Kentucky town that I don’t get out of enough,” said Tennille Oliver of Henderson, Kentucky. “I wasn’t sure how, but I knew this week was going to be big.”

The “week” Tennille is referencing was the Little Pink Houses of Hope breast cancer retreat on Marco this past June. For 13 years, Little Pink, a national nonprofit based in North Carolina, has been holding free, weeklong vacation retreats for families battling breast cancer, and Tennille was one of seven “Volunstars,” the term Little Pink uses for their specially trained volunteers, most from out of town, who act as concierges for the families during the week.

Unlike most of the Volunstars at the Marco retreat and elsewhere, however, Tennille enjoyed a unique bond with the cancer survivors she served: she too is a breast cancer survivor and was a Little Pink retreat participant in Blue Ridge, Georgia in 2018. 

Tennille Oliver was 33 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer on her son Hutson’s third birthday, November 5, 2018. Oliver emits a serious “mama bear” vibe, rooted in her own mom’s tragic and sudden death in 2009 from medication-induced aspiration while sleeping. “I’m a doer and I’m a helper and I’m a lover,” she says, explaining that with her mom’s passing, she stepped into the role of surrogate mom for her younger sister and source of strength and support for her stepfather Pat, whom she adores.

Her cancer diagnosis flipped that world upside down in myriad ways, Oliver says. “How in the hell am I gonna let people take care of me? Because I don’t know how to do that,” she says. “I didn’t even give myself time to have a cold, much less cancer.”

Her cancer was invasive ductile carcinoma, which had spread to her lymph nodes. From December 2018 to early June 2019, she underwent two rounds of aggressive chemotherapy. She had a lumpectomy in July of that year, shortly after the Blue Ridge Little Pink retreat, as well as a full hysterectomy and daily radiation treatment for three months. After a COVID-related pause that shut down many hospital procedures, she had a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery in September 2021, choosing a procedure called DIEP flap, which uses a woman’s own tissues to create a new breast after a mastectomy. 

“I actually learned about this from the ladies on my Little Pink retreat in Blue Ridge and was so happy to discover an option using my own tissues and not implants,” she says. “This was important to me because I had a reoccurrence risk since the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes.”

Oliver and her family got more than just sound medical advice from her Blue Ridge retreat experience. Perhaps more importantly, the week gave them a break from the living hell of her cancer treatment at a moment they needed it most.

“I didn’t realize how big of an experience this would be for me until I saw this huge mountain with a big, beautiful cabin that someone had donated so my family could just relax and enjoy ourselves,” she says. “Late night giggles and splashing in the hot tub! So much good food and just genuine love everywhere.”

The highlight of the week, Oliver says, was a scenic train ride the participants and their families took from Blue Ridge to nearby McCaysville, Georgia, along the bucolic Toccoa River. 

“Just taking a breath, taking in all that beauty and watching Hutson’s excitement was so cool,” she says.

While roughly a third of Little Pink retreat participants end up volunteering for the organization in some capacity, about half that amount make the commitment to use a week’s personal vacation to become a Volunstar, most often at a retreat location they have to travel to. For Oliver, her experience in Blue Ridge cemented her desire to do just that.

“I physically felt cancer trying to take everything from me and during that despair, Little Pink showed up,” she says. “During my retreat week, a community of absolute strangers selflessly showered my family with so much love and joy. They gave us smiles we hadn’t seen in a while and filled my heart with hope. How could I not want to be part of that beauty for someone else? I knew before I left Blue Ridge that I’d be back with Little Pink, on the other side.”

So, in February of 2023, Oliver applied to be a Little Pink Volunstar and was selected to attend the inaugural Marco Island retreat in June 2023. But like so much in Oliver’s life of late, cancer threw a wrench in the works.

Just before the Marco retreat, routine bloodwork showed signs of her cancer returning. A subsequent MRI was ordered by her doctor, and it showed the presence of a tumor. Her natural reaction was to call Jeanine Patten-Coble, the founder of Little Pink Houses of Hope and a breast cancer survivor herself.

“I panicked and called Jeanine and told her I already got my plane tickets and if it was cancer, my work with Little Pink would have to wait,” she says. “I went for the ultrasound and was prepped for a biopsy, but they couldn’t find the tumor anywhere! You can’t biopsy something that’s not there.”

Her doctors told her they’d check back in November, when she’s due for her next scans. But Oliver had her mind set on being a Volunstar, tucked the whole incident in the back of her mind and flew to Marco for the retreat.

“It’s something I decided not to stress over until I have to because it literally makes me sick,” she says. “Out of sight, out of mind.”

As for her time in Marco, Oliver says her favorite event of the week was the “Survivor Tea,” hosted by Marco resident Robin Ballard, also a breast cancer survivor, and her husband Monty, in their home on the island. It’s a time at the start of the week when the survivors, without family, spend time getting to know each other and sharing their stories.

“I wanted to hug them all and tell them they’d be OK,” she says. “I was trying not to be a ‘survivor,’ more of a listener. Present for their story, respectful of their time. Lots of tears shed together.”

Oliver and her husband Justin, daughters Brextan and Madyn (19 and 12 respectively) and son Hutson, now 7, have all settled back into their normal routines in Henderson, Kentucky, where Justin and Tennille have lived all their lives. Brextan, who is entering her second year at the University of Kentucky, is there in part thanks to Little Pink’s “Children of Hope” scholarship, which awards grants to children of retreat participants. Brextan was one of four scholarship winners in 2021. 

In her application essay, Brextan had this to say about her mom: “It may sound cliché, but everything I do is for my mom. She is hands down my best friend. My mom gave up everything for me and my family. She couldn’t finish college because she had to be a mother. I am not only going to college for myself, but to accomplish the things she didn’t have the chance to.”

Brad Shaw retired in 2015 after 25 years in corporate communications. He and his wife Mary are full-time Marco residents and spend their time volunteering, boating, cooking, reading and hanging out with friends and family.