Devin Blow: A tale of strength

By Leila Roche (Contact) | Suffolk News-Herald

Published Friday, February 5, 2010

EDITOR’S NOTE: In support of Suffolk’s Relay for Life, the Suffolk News-Herald will feature a series of stories in the coming months about how cancer has touched the lives of various area families.

Cancer comes silently. But, it rarely leaves that way.

In its wake, it often takes a life and leaves scarred loved ones and broken hearts. But in the case of Devin Blow, it also left behind a tale of strength.

“She was the type of person that she didn’t let anything keep her down,” said Hazel Knight, her mother. “She had a heart of gold and would have done anything for anybody. It kept her going.”

Cancer wasn’t the beginning of Devin’s trials. She was only 22 years old when her car was struck by an 18-wheeler off Pitchkettle Road. The accident shattered her face so badly she lost an eye and had to undergo surgery to restructure her face. Three vertebrae in her back and many other bones in her body also were fractured, and she was in a coma for at least two weeks after the accident.

During her coma, her then-boyfriend, Larry Blow, proposed and put a ring on Devin’s finger. She recovered from her coma, planned her own wedding and was married in April 2002.

“She walked down the aisle on her daddy’s arm,” Knight said. “She was determined to get down the aisle with her daddy.”

The accident had left Devin’s right leg shorter than her left leg, and due to hip and vertebrae factures she was on crutches for months.

Just as she walked down the aisle, Devin displayed strength and courage when she was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2006.

“She cried for a little bit, but that was it,” Knight said. “She would always tell me, ‘Mama, I’m not going to let this get me down. I’ve got to live. I don’t know how long God has me on this earth, but I’ve got to live one day at a time.”

Devin went to chemotherapy twice a week, and she cooked and cleaned for her husband and two children.

In July, when her grandmother died of lung cancer, Devin overcame her own physical pain to honor her grandmother.

“She walked with her cousins behind the casket just to be with her grandmamma,” Knight said. “She was in so much pain, but you didn’t know it.”

Her pain wasn’t the only think Devin kept to herself. Knight said Devin never told her the extent of her cancer until her dying day.

“I had no idea the cancer had spread all over her body,” Knight said. “She’d come and smile and laugh and be up and about. She would come to the house. You wouldn’t have thought she knew she was dying. She kept it from people.”

“One day in her last month she kept asking if I was all right, and I said, ‘I’m fine, baby.’ She was just concerned about everyone else,” Knight said.

On October 5, 2009, Devin passed away at home, among her friends and family.

“She’s not dead though,” Knight said. “Her body is in the ground, but her spirit is here. She’s not dealing with the pain. There are no doctors sticking needles in her – no nausea from the chemo.”

To remember Devin, a memorial service will be held today at 7 p.m. at St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church at 817 McKinley Avenue. Special guests will be the 112 Adult Praise Dance Ministry of First Baptist Church. The service benefits St. Mark’s building fund.

“All proceeds received will go the building fund in memory of Devin, so she’ll have a part of the new church,” Knight said. “We want people to remember her. We’ll always try to keep her memory alive.”

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