Ya Ya members focused on fun, laughter, movies, food and wine – and no one was a more devoted Ya Ya than Wendy Smith.
But the informal support group for five women who survived breast cancer is now down to one. Smith died June 4 at age 47.
The Ya Yas (a name taken from the book and movie “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”) liked to do “fun and crazy things,” said Marilyn Daves of Aurora, the sole survivor. “We also laughed and cried and talked about absolutely everything. We weren’t whiners.”
The women went on a weekend retreat and participated yearly in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Last year, Smith had to travel in a wheelchair but she insisted on walking over the finish line.
“She was brave,” said John Thiel, a neighbor and friend. “Sometimes she’d come over crying, but then she’d pull herself together. She had a powerful belief she’d beat” cancer, said Thiel.
Often Smith would slip into dark humor with her friends, or use her several wigs for props at parties. “There was a lot of goofiness,” Thiel said, recalling Smith’s efforts at optimism.
“If we all haven’t learned something from Wendy’s bravery we have blinders on,” said her mother, June Knudtson, of La Crosse, Wis.
Wendy “made and kept friends because she had a magnetic personality,” said her sister, Sharon Herzfeld of Buffalo, Minn. “She was a very free spirit”.
Smith first got breast cancer when she was 34 but was cancer-free for nine years. Then it showed up in her bones, and the chemo led to congestive heart failure, said her mother.
In 2004 the cancer was found in her kidney, and that was removed. Later seven tumors showed up in her brain and then more in her stomach.
The Ya Yas, who had first met at the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center in Aurora, bolstered each other through treatments, surgeries and pain. They showed up with hair, no hair, wigs, no wigs, hats and scarves.
Smith kept up treatments, meeting with the Ya Yas and and doing as many activities as possible. “She loved to be with her friends,” said her mother. Ever optimistic, Smith got a manicure two weeks before she died.
In the past several months she spent time in Denver and in La Crosse with her mother. She died at her mother’s home.
Wendy Smith was born March 4, 1960, in Milwaukee and earned both her bachelor’s of science and her master’s degree in business administration, both at the University of Montana.
She married Kevin Downing in 1990. They later divorced.
For several years she was a sales representative for Southern Wine and Spirits in Denver.
In addition to her mother, sister and ex-husband, she is survived by her brother, Jeff Smith, of Bend, Ore., and her father, Dick Smith, of Marquette, Mich.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-954-1223.
