Remember Rebecca: Faith Helps Family Through Heartache

By Carrie Pitzer

It was a cold, dreary spring day. But the laughter still echoed through the Page United Methodist Church.

Bob and Shari Ickes erupted in laughter often as daughter Rachael Cheatum started yet another story about her little sister, “Remember when Bec . . . .”

It’s been just eight months since Rebecca Ickes Hausmann lost her battle with colon cancer, leaving behind five young children, a husband and countless family and friends who adored her. Sitting at a table in the fellowship hall, it was one story after another, all with the same message — strength, love, faith. But most of all faith.

​“Two days before she went to heaven she was so tired,” Bob remembered. “I walked her back to the couch, and she said, ‘Dad, this healing is really taking a lot out of me.’ She called it healing because she never faltered in her faith.”
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No Symptoms of Cancer
Rebecca made having five children look easy, Rachael recalled. She balanced motherhood perfectly as she and Joey raised Ashton, Cooper, Alivia, Kiffin and Beckett in Lincoln.

Life seemed to be going so smoothly that even Rebecca had a feeling that she would soon be tested.

Then it happened. Just days before Rebecca’s 35th birthday she went to the doctor in O’Neill due to abdominal pain. A CT revealed a blockage in her colon and spots on her liver. Surgery and tests followed, revealing the unthinkable - Stage 4 colon cancer. 

Rachael said her sister was the picture of good health. She exercised daily and ate well. But cancer knows no boundaries. Rebecca blamed some stomach issues on gluten and changed her diet, which seemed to help. 

There were no typical symptoms of colon cancer, which made the diagnosis shocking. But Shari said her youngest daughter didn’t waiver.

“She had been working on her faith. Once she was diagnosed, she kicked it into high gear,” Shari said. “She never faltered from the day she was diagnosed. She was amazing. Never once said, ‘Why me?’ ”

Rebecca was just a sophomore in high school when Shari was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, so Shari could relate to Rebecca’s illness, at least the idea of having cancer. Just a teen, Rebecca took over the household duties, never complaining. She cooked, cleaned, whatever was needed.

With the tables turned, Shari watched her daughter in awe, battling a disease that was 100 times worse than hers ever was. Still, she only saw Rebecca cry once.

One day Shari asked her son-in-law what Rebecca was like when no one was around. After all, she had to break down at some point.

​“You see what I see,” Joey told her.
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Unlikely Blessings
Cancer took Rebecca in less than 7 months. Bob said he thought up until the last couple of days that Rebecca was going to beat the cancer. 

“We prayed for a miracle,” Bob said. “It wasn’t looking good, and we prayed for a miracle. We agreed the next day that God did show up. He just didn’t show up the way we wanted him to. He showed up and took her home, and that was a miracle.”

The family admits it sounds odd to call those last months blessings, but they were. After all, Bob said, how many people can truly live like they’re dying? Rebecca did.

The Hausmanns took trips with their children, all while Rebecca was being treated. They said the things people should say but rarely have the opportunity. During her last week, she wrote cards and letters for her children’s future birthdays, graduations, weddings. 

They recorded her speaking to them about not using cancer as an excuse and what she hoped and knew her children could become. She was a mother, preparing them for their future, even as she was dying.

​“I was so amazed by her,” Shari said. “After kids leave the nest, they have a tendency to walk, and you hope they come back. You’re ultimate goal is to get them to heaven. She got to go a little sooner than we hoped, but we know she’s there. We’ve done our job and she’s back in God’s hands.”
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Look For Me In Rainbows 
During the last few days, Rebecca asked her mother to find a specific poem for the funeral. She ran across “Look For Me In Rainbows,” and Rebecca immediately responded. “That’s the one,” she told her mom.

Her family quickly discovered how right Rebecca was. After her death, they saw rainbows on nearly every special day - the first day of school, athletic events, open houses, rainbows arching over their own home.

“There were so many times rainbows appeared when they were needed,” Rachael said. “We had signs.”

Driving through Columbus on Christmas Day, Shari, Joey and the kids saw a rainbow. “How often do you see that in the middle of winter? Look for me in rainbows,” she said while nodding.

“We all saw it,” Rachael said. “I saw it in Orchard, Dad in Page, Matt saw it in Lynch.”

And there have been other signs. Just a couple of days after the funeral, Bob was sitting outside in a chair all alone. There was no wind, but still a feather floated down from a tree. He looked up; there were no birds.
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“I said, ‘Bec, if that’s really you, show me again.’ It wasn’t very long and another feather floated down in the same spot,” Bob said. “That’s not a coincidence for me. I believe. That’s my story of Rebecca.”

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A Page Of History
Rebecca grew up just outside Page. She graduated from Orchard in 1999 and from Nebraska Wesleyan in 2003. Lincoln eventually became home, but Page always held a special place in her heart.

She often told stories of Page, leading to countless friends wanting to experience a piece of Mayberry for themselves. 

Today, a part of Page bears Rebecca’s name. The Ickes family, with the help of Rebecca’s husband Joey, built a basketball court in the newly created park on main street they have named Lamason Park, after the late Jerry and Eva Lamason who previously owned the property.  Joey sent a construction crew to Page last fall to do the dirt work and pour the concrete for the court, which was then named Bec’s Court. The family added swings, picnic tables and more to the park.

Although volleyball was her favorite, people tend to remember Rebecca as a fighter on the basketball court. She drained several last-second shots to win games for the Orioles, so a basketball court seemed perfect.

Nestled in the heart of Page, the basketball hoops even drop down to allow the youngest of children an opportunity to make a basket. And if the Ickeses see someone shooting hoops, they now have “Becca’s Basketball Bucks” to hand out. The $1 is good at the Farmers Store - only in Page and only for school-age children.

It’s a way for the family to give back to the community that helped raise their children. And it’s a way to fulfill a dream of Rebecca’s.

“Not long before she passed, she said it would be her dream to see the streets of Page alive with kids again, like it was when they were kids,” Shari said. “When we put that first tree swing up, you could hear the kids playing. I heard lots of town people say how nice it was to hear that again.”

​And if the sun shines just right after a rain, even a rainbow is possible above Bec’s Court.