Have you ever heard, "A horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks, 'Why the long face?'" Or, "What cereal do snowmen eat? Frosted Flakes." Well if you haven't, Battle Ground resident Cherise Jensen, 71, is going to make sure everybody hears those jokes and many others as a good laugh is one of many ways she keeps a positive mindset going despite what she's been through.
The most recent positive spin on Jensen's life comes in the form of special artwork on her wheelchair, Jensen and her husband of 50 years, Morris, said it has become quite the conversation piece. The two are incredibly proud of the painting their granddaughter, Emily, accomplished.
But what makes Jensen's positive attitude seem courageous, and the fact that she has a wheelchair in the first place? Well, Jensen is still here today after cervical cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, breast cancer, two strokes and two heart attacks and even being diagnosed as legally blind have all happened since 2016, and diabetes is in the mix too.
Jensen is a hereditary victim of the Camp Lejeune water contamination crisis, which occurred at the major East Coast Marine Corps training base from the 1950s to 1987. Camp Lejeune's crisis has sickened over a million people, with Jensen's father having trained there. The toxins in the water supply were so bad, it turned hereditary. Jensen has already lost her sister to ovarian cancer, but she is still here through the miracle work of doctors at OHSU Portland, they said.
"Every day she was getting chemotherapy 24/7," Morris Jensen said. "Every bag that they brought in was more intense, more powerful and up to the point to where if it would have gotten stronger it would have killed her."
After the journey through all the medical procedures and grueling chemo therapy, Cherise Jensen is a frequent flyer to doctors appointments. The long-distance walking isn't always the easiest, and after Morris Jensen had had enough of running in and finding a wheelchair, they decided to buy their own. However, Cherise Jensen enjoys a colorful life, and the wheelchair was quite bland. Her granddaughter provided the solution.
"It's exactly what I wished for," Cherise Jensen said. "My granddaughter asked me, 'Well, what do you want on there?' I would like mountains, but mountains would take up too much room. I would like wildflowers, and we handed her the paint and that's what she did."
The wheelchair is complete with an abundance of colorful flowers and flower-dotted rolling hills with a colorful sky. Even a couple of Cherise Jensen's favorite flower-friendly bugs can be found amongst the painting.
The Jensen's challenge other wheelchair users to showcase their customized wheelchair, and if they don't have artwork on theirs yet, Cherise Jensen highly recommends it. Morris Jensen said the wheelchair art is such a conversation piece that people open up and share their story, and each story told leaves one another with an impact.
