"For 113 years, Avon has been recognized for offering women the means and opportunity to develop themselves as entrepreneurial businesswomen," said Susan J. Kropf, president, Avon North America. (www.avon.com) "The Avon Women of Enterprise Awards continues this heritage of honoring the spirit and determination of women business owners across the United States who, by their example, encourage and inspire other women to tap into their own talents and become their own boss."
Note the key words there: "own boss." Ask Luna Brem and she'll tell you that's exactly what she is. After all the hard work she's put into her two franchises, you'd better not call her anything less. The Corpus Christi, TX, woman certainly deserves the title. When she accepted her award at a luncheon in New York earlier this month, Luna Brem told an amazing story. She became a military wife at the age of 17 and a mother within the year. Five years later, she gave birth to her second son.
She and her husband shared a good marriage and a comfortable life in the military. Then the unimaginable happened; Luna Brem was diagnosed with cancer. She underwent a hysterectomy, only to be diagnosed soon thereafter with breast cancer. She went through an emergency mastectomy and six months of chemotherapy.
"I remember taking some notes when the oncologists were giving me my prognosis," she says. "They said I had two to five years to live. My sons were 7 and 12 years old. Immediately that prognosis was unacceptable. When I read those notes months later, I realized that I never totally internalized it. Maybe it was good that I didn't."
To complicate matters, Luna Brem had no health insurance. The unusual nature of her case, however, aroused doctors' curiosity. Most agreed to see her first and talk money later. Along the road to recovery, she lost her hair, trust in the future and her marriage. Faced with an uncertain future, she made a decision to go on.
"I'm always looking for solutions," she says. "I can recall looking at my mother and other family members who were not dealing with this and thinking, 'boy, I have to be tough for these people.' There were times when I would have to have meetings with myself in front of the mirror and regroup."
Go To Page: 1 2
