'It might be the last one': Why a mom 'made ends meet' to take her family to CCMF

Like thousands of others, Clinton, Iowa native Tricia Petersen and her family came to dance on the beach during the Carolina Country Music Festival near the boardwalk this weekend.

But the business owner and 42-year-old mother of three almost didn't make it because of a serious medical diagnoses in early April.

The plan to attend the festival started Christmas morning, when Petersen booked her family a vacation to Myrtle Beach for CCMF. Her husband Mark is a huge Zac Brown Band fan, and her kids are Luke Bryan fans. She was looking for a family trip opportunity and CCMF fit the bill.

"I don’t like to buy stuff, I like to buy memories, because everybody has enough stuff,” Petersen said. “We always look forward to spending time together and with the kids being in college, it’s harder and harder to get time to spend with them because they’re all so busy with their own lives.”

Petersen is a huge music fan, and the family goes to concerts every year.

“Music just cures your soul, I think,” Petersen said. “It can help get rid of a bad day, can get you excited, helps you get through cleaning your house sometimes. Concerts, there’s just so much positive energy there that it’s just exciting to be around. You can’t replace that live experience of being with the people, from getting ready to getting there to getting the chance to maybe seeing somebody or meeting somebody.”

Petersen’s daughter, McKenzie Petersen, said her mom didn’t wrap any presents for her Christmas morning.

“I wasn’t bummed at all,” said the 20-year-old volleyball player who plans to attend the University of Iowa. “And then she goes, ‘Well since you haven’t asked for it yet, here’s your stocking.’ And then she put a little note in the stocking that said we’re all going on a family vacation.”

That vacation almost never happened.

One night, Tricia Petersen woke up with a pain in her armpit. A mammogram missed the problem at first, but a biopsy and ultrasound were more conclusive

On April 9, Tricia Petersen was diagnosed with breast cancer, which turned out to be stage three.

McKenzie found out after one of her volleyball games. It was past 9 p.m. and Tricia, who worked late, managed to drive out to see the end of the day's last game.

“I said ‘Hey, you didn’t have to drive all the way out here, I know you had to work late,’” McKenzie said. “After the game she took us out to eat … and she just froze and said ‘Hey, I have cancer.’ I was just in shock.”

McKenzie’s first thought was to cancel the trip.

“I said ‘I refuse to go without her,’ because it would kill her seeing us have all this fun,” McKenzie said. “Music is her number one thing in the world.”

But Tricia wasn’t going to let cancer stop her.

“I said ‘There’s no way we’re canceling this trip, because it might be the last one,'” Tricia said. “You just never know.”

She finished her fourth round of chemotherapy on Monday, and flew out to Myrtle Beach on Wednesday after getting an injection to boost her immune system. She said she’ll start 12 more rounds when she goes back home.

“She’s definitely the type of person to live in the moment, so she just found all the ways to make ends meet and got here,” McKenzie said. “She is definitely a huge inspiration to anyone fighting anything out there.”

Tricia teared up at the thought of going back to Iowa to continue treatment, but had no intention of passing up on the trip.

“Life is just way too short to pass up memories and pass up time to spend with your family because you just never know," she said.

This story was originally published June 10, 2018 at 4:02 PM with the headline "'It might be the last one': Why a mom 'made ends meet' to take her family to CCMF."