This is an inspiring story of one woman's personal transformation from breast cancer, and how the music of John Denver served as a springboard to help extricate her from severe depression brought on by the disease and its radical treatment. Kay Johnson would later connect with John, talking with him on the phone and eventually meeting him in person. After recovering, Kay was asked to begin a Volunteer Music Therapy Program for Children and Adolescents with Cancer at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. This was a pilot project sponsored by the New York State Division of the American Cancer Society. John asked to be "kept in the loop" regarding the program. When he performed in Buffalo again, he donated free concert tickets for all the children in the music program, a real Rocky Mountain High for these kids! Kay traveled for the ACS, telling her personal cancer story and sharing how music helped in her recovery. She would use powerful music - some of it original - in her presentations. Kay would go on to be selected as One of Ten Outstanding Young Women of America in 1977 for this work. The book demonstrates the power of music as a therapeutic tool for rehabilitation from illness and how life's darkest, most challenging moments can be times of positive transformation. My Walk of Faith, Hope, and Love By Kay Johnson-Gentile Balboa Press Copyright © 2016 Dr. Kay Johnson-Gentile All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5043-5688-6 Contents 1. The Setting of my Story, 1, 2. My Life is Changed Forever, 6, 3. I Was Not Consulted About This, 12, 4. The Love of a Father, 15, 5. Face to Face With My Truth, 18, 6. Home, At Last!, 23, 7. The Transforming Miracle of Music, 30, 8. Understanding the Healing Properties of Dreams, 37, 9. John Denver and I Connect, 41, 10. My Early Years And Music, 46, 11. How the Ancients Viewed Music, 52, 12. Volunteering for The American Cancer Society (ACS), 55, 13. Beginning My Walk of Faith, Hope, and Love, 71, 14. Epilogue, 77, CHAPTER 1 The Setting of my Story Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul. Plato, The Republic Nineteen seventy-five is a year I will always remember. It was the year the revolutionary movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, took all the big prizes including Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It was the year Saturday Night Live premiered on NBC television. In sports, the amazing Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe were Wimbledon champions. And The Way We Were, recorded by Barbra Streisand, was the song of the year. Gerald Ford was president of the United States with former Governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller, serving as second in command. Our President escaped two assassination attempts, and on April 24 the Vietnamese War officially ended. All in the Family and Laverne and Shirley were top TV shows, and Freddie Fender was taking the world by storm with his big hit, Before the Next Teardrop Falls. It was also the year I discovered I had breast cancer – something I never believed would happen -- not to me. But it did happen, and the experience would change my life forever. In many ways, my cancer story is similar to thousands of others, but there are at least three important differences. First was the major role music played in my recovery, especially the music of 1970s Superstar, John Denver. Denver's music not only brought me out of severe depression but helped me heal from the physical and mental ravages of a potentially fatal disease. The second difference was my becoming Coordinator of a Volunteer Music Therapy Pilot Project for Children and Adolescents with Cancer. This cutting edge project was sponsored by the New York State Division of the American Cancer Society (ACS). Dr. James Wallace, then Director of Cancer Control at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, was the brains behind the project. The third was the effect cancer had on me as a woman. Before this experience, I was not very assertive or bold. I felt quite content going along with my husband's desires and decisions. I was dependent on him, thinking that was appropriate behavior for a good wife. As naïve as it sounds, in my twenties, it is what I believed. That was also true regarding my spiritual and religious beliefs. I had not thought through important religious doctrine and developed beliefs of my own. I did not have my own voice. I did not speak my own truth. I had not yet created an authentic identity. As I look back on this time, I know my soul was doing its best to push me in a more independent and assertive direction. But I was not listening to this inner voice, so concerned about my womanhood. The only indication I had that something was not right was a growing anxiety and feeling of discontent. It was an inner knowing that there just had to be more to life than I was experiencing. My story begins in early November 1974. My husband, Bill Joh