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Some moments in life change us quietly.
Others crack us open completely.

For Nicole Urbanek, that moment came at just thirty-three, when the life she knew split wide with a breast cancer diagnosis. It wasn’t just her body that changed — it was the way she understood loss, resilience, and who she truly was beneath it all.

Nicole is a teacher, a storyteller, and someone who has known grief long before cancer entered the picture — losing her father at twenty, and her brother just twelve years later. In the classroom, she found purpose and light. In her students, she found a reason to keep showing up, even on her darkest days.

In her Story Crafting piece, Cracked Open, Nicole invites us into a powerful metaphor — a life shaped like a set of nesting dolls. Each layer built from love, memory, heartbreak, and survival. Cancer didn’t destroy her. It revealed her — stripping away the noise and leaving only what truly matters.

This is a story about choosing not to orbit endlessly around what’s lost…
but reaching inward to find the next version of yourself waiting.

Because when life cracks you open, what you discover inside just might be stronger than you ever imagined.

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Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at teamyounight@gmail.com

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Some stories are not about how strong we are —
but about who carried us when we had no strength left.

When we first met Catrina Sullivan, she carried herself with strength —
and with walls.
Walls built over years of heartache.
Of people letting her down.
Of being taken advantage of.
Of learning the hard way that survival sometimes means staying guarded.

Her life has been shaped by battles most people never see —
childhood trauma, silence in the military, abuse, loss, motherhood carried alone.
And then, at thirty-nine, a diagnosis that stopped everything —
Stage Two HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.

But as our team circled the wagons around her, something shifted.
Catrina realized the love being offered wasn’t conditional or performative — it was real.
Safe.
Given freely, without expectation.

And still — this is not just a cancer story.

This is a testimony of faith forged in fire.
Of a woman who kept walking, not because the road was easy,
but because God never let her walk alone.

In He Carried Me Through the Sand, Catrina reflects on a life marked by struggle and resilience — and the unmistakable presence of God in every chapter. When her strength failed, His did not. When she could no longer stand, He carried her.

Support the show

Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at teamyounight@gmail.com

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What does it mean to survive when life never gives you time to rest?

In this powerful episode of Still I Rise, Cat Black shares her extraordinary story of surviving breast cancer and leukemia — not once, but twice — while raising two young children. Diagnosed with breast cancer at 36 with a four-year-old and a five-month-old at home, Cat fought not just for herself, but for her family. Just as life began to stabilize, a second diagnosis — leukemia — burned everything down again.

Through hospital isolation, failed chemotherapy, and a life-saving stem cell transplant from a perfect international donor, Cat rose from the ashes — scarred, transformed, and stronger than before.

Using the metaphor of the phoenix, Cat reflects on survival, motherhood, identity, and the relentless fires that shape a woman when she has no choice but to rise. This episode is a testament to maternal strength, resilience, and the quiet sparks that keep us going even in the darkest moments.

If you’ve ever faced cancer, cared for a loved one, or wondered how people survive the unimaginable — this story will stay with you long after the episode ends.

Support the show

Still I Rise features stories from You Night's STORY CRAFTING COMMUNITY. To read additional stories, visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YouNightStories. Would you like to participate in a 6-week Story Crafting small group experience so that you can share your story? Write to us at teamyounight@gmail.com