Mom’s Inspiring Final Gesture for Daughter, Days Before Dying of Cancer

Ben Krueger with baby Amari and wife Athena, who died of breast cancer just a day after her daughter’s first birthday. (Photo: Facebook)

A Minnesota woman who was slammed in quick succession with both the best and worst news of her life — that she was pregnant with her first child and then, soon after, that she had terminal cancer — has died, just a day after her daughter Amari’s first birthday. But Athena Krueger, 33, left memories of celebration in her wake, as she managed to host a huge tea party for 300 in Amari’s honor just days before dying.

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“At no point, until the very end, did she believe she wasn’t going to be healed,” her husband, Ben Krueger, told KARE 11. “She felt God’s power was the only thing that could heal her.”

At the birthday party, Ben dressed as the Mad Hatter and Athena as Alice, complete with a long blond wig; Amari was glowing in a pink dress, pink headband and too-big white gloves.

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"I fully trust everything will be fine, regardless what the outcome is,” Athena had told KARE 11 last fall. “The best thing is to take bad situations and turn them into good.”

Just a few months after becoming pregnant, Athena learned she had stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma — making her one in about 3,000 women to be diagnosed with what’s called gestational breast cancer, or pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC). These types of cancers are complicated for many reasons, according to the American Cancer Society — they’re often diagnosed at a later stage than it would be without a pregnancy, as hormonal changes, including spikes in estrogen, progesterone and prolactin, can cause breasts to become lumpy and tender, making it harder to detect a tumor. Breast cancer screenings are also often delayed until a pregnancy is over.

Krueger, according to a story covered by Yahoo Parenting in November, had found a lump in her breast that was dismissed as a normal change due to pregnancy. It wasn’t until a couple of months later, after noticing that the lump was growing, that Krueger went back for another breast exam. Soon thereafter, she got the call from her doctor that began, “I’m so sorry…” She started chemotherapy at 15 weeks into her pregnancy.

She detailed her struggle on a blog, which she introduced with the humble warning, “I am not a blogger. Can you tell?” Her entries discuss various routes of treatment, the strength she drew from going to church, and the story of Amari’s premature birth. In her final entry, from November 2014, she mused about being lucky.

“I know that there are some cancer survivors that take offense to the idea when someone refers to their disease as a blessing but I’m not going to apologize for saying that in my situation I believe it is,” she wrote. “I’ve been stripped of my health, my hair, my career and money, and my energy yet I’ve never felt more blessed. When you are faced with the fact that there is a chance that your time here on earth is limited and in fact, may be sooner than you expected, you begin to only focus on the things that matter and all the other distractions subside. I find thankfulness in everything. Through my diagnosis I’ve got to see the beauty in people, resiliency from other survivors that inspire me, and incredible generosity through the outpouring of support. I will never be the same.”