Marble Falls breast cancer patient gets ‘hole-in-one’ with sign from above
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
MARBLE FALLS — When Patty McAlpin dropped the 500 golf balls from a helicopter Sept. 1, she probably couldn’t have picked a better winner had she tried. But it wasn’t up to her or the other members of Team Treasured Chests.
“It was pretty much God, right down to the cross on the ground,” she said Sept. 3, when she and Team Treasured Chests gathered in Salem’s of Marble Falls to present the winner with the $500 prize — and the winning golf ball. “God rolled your ball into the hole.”
Kathy Rose, complete with a scarf wrapped around her head, held back a tear or two, as did the handful of people gathered around.
“I didn’t believe it at first,” Rose said. “This is just too incredible.”
Team Treasured Chests organized the golf ball drop as an effort to hit its fundraising goal of at least $13,800 to participate in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day in November. The team members needed a minimum of that amount to participate in the 60-mile walk in Dallas that raises money for breast cancer research, treatment and education.
McAlpin, a member of the team, battled the disease last year and set a goal this year of participating in the event. Her sister formed a team and walked it in honor of McAlpin last year.
But what McAlpin and the other team members never suspected was who would win the golf ball drop. You see, Rose doesn’t wear a scarf around her head as a fashion statement — though it does look good on her — she wears it because the breast cancer treatments have robbed her of her hair.
“People joked that we planned it this way,” said Wendy Bingham of Team Treasured Chests. “But we didn’t. This is just amazing.”
While cancer might have taken Rose’s hair, she holds tight to her sense of humor. As Team Treasured Chests, which is made up of McAlpin, Bingham, Kathy Wright, Judy Miller, Kay Batch and Judy Conrad, presented her with the prize, Rose joked about the disease and shared some insights about it and life.
“Cancer kind of sucks, but it’s not the worse thing that’s happened to me,” she said, which brought a laugh. McAlpin chimed in that she’s going to remember that line.
McAlpin agreed and added the disease gave her a new perspective on many things.
“The eye-opening blessings are incredible,” she said.
“And you see them every day,” Rose added.
They both pointed out that in the photograph of the golf ball drop, the hovering helicopter casts a shadow in the shape of a cross just as McAlpin was starting to drop the golf balls.
“It wasn’t there before she began dropping the golf balls, and it wasn’t there when she finished,” team member Wright said. “It just happened at that moment. It was incredible.”
The Sept. 1 event pushed Team Treasured Chests over its goal to about $14,200. So, they’ll each walk 60 miles over three days in November as part of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day. When Rose heard about the distance each of the women will walk, she shook her head again.
“You are my heroes,” she said. At one point, Rose even tried to donate some of her winnings back, but Team Treasured Chests refused.
“That’s yours,” McAlpin said and then joked, “Now, if we were at $13,400, well, then maybe, but we have enough. And that really goes back to this community. We are so appreciative of Marble Falls.”
Go to www.the3day.org for more on the Susan G. Komen 3-Day event.
daniel@thepicayune.com