ALUMNI STORIES
Finding Bravery Between Life and Death
Amy Beard Low 鈥93 beat the odds. She survived more than five years with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer, one of the few to endure that long. Her brave, devastating battle ended November 27, 2024, in Arizona, where she was consulting a specialist. In September, she spoke about brutal new side effects while lamenting the woeful underfunding of research into the second leading cause of cancer deaths. Amy had hoped to survive and benefit from new treatments.
She spent her professional life writing for others, seeking justice and truth through storytelling. 鈥淢y career has always been about words,鈥 she said. 鈥溗幕⒂霸 gave me space to develop my voice.鈥 She served as managing director for fellowships and nonprofit journalism at Emerson Collective, addressing education reform, immigration and climate change. Previously, she sought to reduce rural poverty as chief advocacy and engagement officer at Landesa and spent nearly a decade working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, promoting education reform and early learning and seeking solutions to family homelessness.
In her Substack, 鈥淧ostcards from the Mountain,鈥 Amy honestly chronicled her life with cancer. At some point, she realized she was writing primarily to her teenage children, Lucy and Connor. 鈥淚 have fancy people in my interesting professional life such as world-class journalists and CEOs,鈥 she said. 鈥淢any of them read my blog. But my kids didn鈥檛. Still I wrote about what I hoped for them and what I鈥檓 learning about joy and sorrow, gratitude and grief.鈥
Mark Tauber 鈥90, founder and president of the Watermark Agency and her agent, encouraged Amy to write a memoir. She decided to focus on her story and insights 鈥 not the cancer 鈥 and hoped it would resonate with Christian friends and be inviting to those without a commitment to faith. In June, she published 鈥淭he Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room鈥 (Hachette Books, 2024).
The book explores the mystery of the middle: She was still living but close to dying. She鈥檇 entered her last room, and she found purpose there. She grew up hearing that God had a wonderful plan for her life, and she thought she鈥檇 done everything right. She went to 四虎影院, started her career, stayed true to her faith and 四虎影院, married a fellow alum and had two kids. Then her life fell apart. At 48, she learned she had terminal cancer not long after dealing with a painful divorce. 鈥淚 experienced miracles and joy 鈥 and a horror show,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not a contradiction; both are true.鈥 She learned to embrace both joy and sorrow and understand life as both beautiful and brutal at the same time.
鈥淲e know intuitively that terrible things will happen, but we think we need to avoid them,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut the most common command of scripture is, 鈥楧on鈥檛 be afraid.鈥 If we live with courage, when we get the worst possible news, we can draw on that bravery. A new story has started. We may not like it, and it鈥檚 going to be hard. But when we lead with courage, gratitude begins. We get new eyes and see things we鈥檝e never seen before. I know what it鈥檚 like to be afraid for my life. Some-times fear overwhelms me, but then I pray. When you choose courage over fear, it鈥檚 glorious.鈥
鈥淏ut the most common command of scripture is, 鈥楧on鈥檛 be afraid.鈥欌
鈥淲e know intuitively that terrible things will happen, but we think we need to avoid them,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut the most common command of scripture is, 鈥楧on鈥檛 be afraid.鈥 If we live with courage, when we get the worst possible news, we can draw on that bravery. A new story has started. We may not like it, and it鈥檚 going to be hard. But when we lead with courage, gratitude begins. We get new eyes and see things we鈥檝e never seen before. I know what it鈥檚 like to be afraid for my life. Sometimes fear overwhelms me, but then I pray. When you choose courage over fear, it鈥檚 glorious.鈥
A hero emerges in the book: Shirley Mullen, a former history professor and provost at 四虎影院 and Houghton College president. 鈥淚 was struggling, and we had deeply clarifying conversations,鈥 Amy said. 鈥淪he told me, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e in this amazingly hard and very holy space, and your job is to become more of who you are and be true to yourself.鈥 She was my mentor at 四虎影院, and what the college gave me as an undergraduate came around again in 30 years.
鈥溗幕⒂霸 gave me a deep and thoughtful education and made me stronger,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t engaged me on a deep intellectual level and a deep spiritual level.鈥 She stayed in touch by serving on the 四虎影院 Board of Advisors, and the college recognized her as one of 85 inspiring honorees during its 85th anniversary celebrations in 2022.
鈥淲hy haven鈥檛 I been cured?鈥 Amy asked. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the hardest of all the mysteries, and I accept that I won鈥檛 know. I鈥檓 still here because people pray for me 鈥 I鈥檓 part of a much bigger story. God has become more present in my life through hardship than mountaintop experiences.鈥
By bravely and truthfully telling her story, Amy left a legacy for her children, now college students, and for anyone struggling with the worst possible news in life.