Maggie F.

Maggie is the proud owner of RMY’s Restaurant, open since 1986 to serve her family’s soul food recipes. According to her daughter, Yolanda, the restaurant is the longest standing Black-owned business in Fort Wayne.

Only open on Sundays to serve a loyal base of customers, this is truly a family business, with Yolanda and her children helping to prepare and serve scratch-made favorites like candied yams, macaroni and cheese, and Maggie’s famous fried chicken.

In 2016, Yolanda was working alongside her mother and noticed she seemed unusually tired. After having a conversation, Maggie shared that she wasn’t feeling well and had also found some swollen lumps on her neck and back.

Following an exam and tests, Maggie was diagnosed in Fort Wayne with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

With Maggie living alone in Fort Wayne, and Yolanda living in Indianapolis, the family decided to move Maggie into Yolanda’s home and seek care at the Community MD Anderson Cancer Center – South.

Under the care of Bilal Siddiqui, MD, a medical oncologist at Community Health Network MD Anderson Cancer Center, Maggie began chemotherapy. After completing treatment, she entered remission and remained under the care of Dr. Siddiqui and his team. 

In 2022, Maggie once again showed symptoms of fatigue and Dr. Siddiqui shared with Maggie and Yolanda that Maggie had a reoccurrence of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and that the cancer had also spread to her liver and lungs.

“She got really sick from this Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which was unusual at her age, and to be in so many places all over her body,” Dr. Siddiqui said. “We are blessed we are an MD Anderson partner. I was able to discuss her case at the hematology tumor board and with the MD Anderson cancer team.”

Following the review of Maggie’s case, the decision was made to start immunotherapy, the use of medicines to help her immune system better recognize and destroy cancer cells.

According to Yolanda, Dr. Siddiqui said Maggie has “done awesome” with immunotherapy and she is now cancer free, but will continue to receive treatments every three weeks. “The one thing I really like about Dr. Siddiqui is his optimism,” Yolanda said. “He never said anything negative. He said, ‘we are going to beat this.’”

Cassie Osborne, RN, is an oncology nurse navigator at Community MD Anderson Cancer Center - South, and has become close with Maggie and her family, often sharing family recipes during their regular appointments. During one appointment, Cassie learned that Maggie and the family were struggling with family finances, so she referred Maggie to Helen Caldwell, a licensed medical social worker at Community MD Anderson Cancer Center – South, to see if resources were available to help Maggie.

Helen was able to qualify Maggie for help through Community’s donor-funded Oncology Patient Assistance Fund, which connects cancer patients in need to food, medicine, transportation, and housing and utilities assistance.

Living with her daughter, son-in-law and their three children, Maggie wanted to help and was able to use multiple gift cards to help with groceries and more. 

“We are super grateful for the help we received because it came at time when we really needed it,” Yolanda said.

Maggie, who wants to be known as a survivor and fighter, currently helps cook on her daughter’s food truck, RMY’s Soul/Comfort Food Mobile Kitchen and Catering, which is an extension of the family restaurant in Fort Wayne. 

“I look up to God for everything he’s done for me,” Maggie said. “He brought me from cancer one to cancer two. One day I was working in the food truck, and I went outside just to thank Him and say thank you.”