Songs for Jill: Recording artist soothes the pain of cancer with music
LOUISVILLE — Music can summon the spirit, providing a respite from exhaustion and pain. And song filled cancer patient Jill Brzezinski-Conley’s bedroom on Monday as a recording artist from across the country knelt beside her for a private concert surrounded by family and friends.
Conley lay beneath a blanket, her husband Bart’s hand on her knee, as indie pop singer-songwriter Mindy Gledhill sang Conley’s favorite song, “All the Pennies,” about love being life's greatest treasure. Conley said it always made her think of Bart.
All the riches put together….could not make me love you any better, sang Gledhill, who flew in from Utah after learning Conley was on hospice.
Conley, 38, has been fighting breast cancer for more than six years, and it has spread to her bones, lungs and liver. Paste BN is chronicling her journey as well as her dying missions — to grow her cancer charity, Jill’s Wish, and spread her belief that not even fatal illness can erase beauty.
Conley first heard Gledhill’s music when photographer Sue Bryce included it in a video about Jill’s story called “The Light that Shines.”
“As soon as I heard it, if you were in my car or in my kitchen, I would just play it over and over,” Conley said, adding that she'd often dance along.
But that was when she was healthier. In November, she collapsed in her apartment, required CPR and suffered a seizure on the way to the hospital. She went into hospice just before New Year’s, and since then has had problems with memory and breathing. She’s getting thinner and more tired, her voice more raspy.
“But I’m just praying,” she said. “I believe in miracles. I’m the cat with nine lives.”
Gledhill, who sports pink hair and wore a Jill's Wish T-shirt for Monday's concert, asked Conley what she’s learned from her journey.
“I have my bad days. But then I truly believe I’ve become a voice to help so many people out there,” Conley said. One of the toughest things has been watching her family and friends deal with the slow and agonizing stress of losing her. “It’s heartbreaking because I have no control.”
Gledhill asked what Bart has learned.
“How much I love her,” he said. “It’s hard to watch her go through this and not me. We’ve had a life that people don’t live in 50 years together. I’m so happy me and her are together through it all.”
“It’s just so hard,” Conley added, her voice breaking.
Gledhill sang a couple more songs, including one called “Whole Wide World," which lyrics reflecting Conley’s thirst to live fully: I wanna hold the whole wide world right here in my open hands….
When the music ended, Gledhill, who has five albums, said Conley’s apartment was “the best venue I’ve ever played” in her 14 years in the industry because it allowed her to see, close up, how her music touches others.
Conley thanked everyone gathered in the room. "I was blown away," she told Gledhill. "All these people mean the world to me. And you mean the world to me."
It was almost like the cancer receded, if only for a moment.
“That was the goal,” Gledhill said. “Mission accomplished.”