Faith, Hope and Love

All You Need Is Love

Love is what got Patsy Spear and Louise Lyles through their hard times, and love is what has given them the strength to keep on. Lyles and Spear are not your average mother- daughter pair. They have experienced their fair share of heartache and pain, but through it all they have had each other. The two are each other’s best friends.

In May 2001 Louise Lyles was diagnosed with breast cancer. After the surgery, Lyles’ daughter, Spear took a leave of absence to stay with her mother for her recovery period. Just seven months later Spear was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had to go through the same surgery. Spear spent her recovery time with her mother.

“This time in our lives brought me and my mom closer together because we are the only people we have,” Spear said.

In May of 1999, they lost their husband and father, Robert Lyles. Shortly after Lyles lost her second sister to lung cancer and Spear lost a cousin with colon cancer. Spear’s has no siblings; her mother is all she has.

“Our faith is the main thing that carried us through,” Spear said. “It has always been a big part of our lives, even more so now.”

Lyles lives in Gordon and is retired from Warner Robbins. Spear has been the information specialist at the Convention Visitors Bureau for the last 15 years. She moved to Milledgeville in 1965.

For five years after their diagnoses Spear and Lyles had to take a daily pill. At the five-year mark, when there was no sign of the cancer returning, the mother-daughter paired realized they had been truly blessed to still have each other and went out to dinner to celebrate.

In April 2009, Spears nominated her mother for Channel 13 WMAZ “Remarkable Moms.”

“My mother has a big heart and is a giving person,” said Spear. “My mom is my best friend and I do not go a day without talking to her multiple times.”

Lyles was chosen as a remarkable mom because of the faith, hope, and love she has shown her daughter.

“If you do not begin your family with love and care, you will not get far,” said Lyles.

Spear’s contributes her passion and good heart to the examples her mother set for her all her life.

“I am the person I am today because of the things she taught me growing up,” Spear said. “She does not let little things bother her, and she has always been there when I needed her.”

Lyles loves her daughter for a lot of the same reasons. They both are thankful for each other’s devotion and loyalty to one another.

“I love my daughter because she is true to herself,” said Lyles. “I believe she is a gift from God. She is all that I have.”

The mother-daughter best friends spend every weekend together. Spear’s loves their quiet, quality time together. They both make it a point to embrace each other on every visit and they never end a night without saying to each other “I love you.”