The Story of Antoinette Lewis [Thursday Noon Lunch]

Two weeks ago, the WU brought in Antoinette Lewis to speak at the WU Thursday Lunch about her story of overcoming loss and grief. With the death of her husband due to gastric cancer around the time she gave birth to her second child, Lewis faced extraordinary adversity in order to save her Claremont home from foreclosure and raising her two young children. “Supernanny” Jo Foster came to her aid in her time of need to help her regain control of her life.

Personally for me, it was so inspiring to see Lewis so successful after such a difficult struggle. Lewis’s story is a story of finding strength in a community, with different people helping her in different ways. Truly, Lewis’s life is a testament to the saying that “no (wo)man is an island.” Faith also supported Lewis tremendously as she coped with serious hardships.

The most important message that Lewis imparted on me was to enjoy the beautiful things in life. For a college student, it’s so easy to get caught up in EVERYTHING in our lives. We stress about classes, grades, grad school, jobs, internships, extracurriculars, our social lives, and whatever else there is to stress about. I stress about life CONSTANTLY, and I think it’s important to be reminded about all the things in my life that I have been blessed with. I also think it’s important to remember that no matter what difficulties we are faced with, there are people who are there for us to help us and hold us up the entire way through. People prevail, and that’s a pretty nice thing to hear sometimes. Stay positive peeps!

-Jessie