He’s a blues musician. She’s a breast cancer survivor. This is their special love story

By Forrest Sanders

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    NASHVILLE (WTVF) — We are just days away from Valentine’s. While no two love stories are the same, we wanted to share the story of a couple like no other. Their story is one of keeping a vow in the face of anything.

I want to tell you the love story of Tawana and Stacy Mitchhart.

“She was just enamored with what I was doing on stage!” Stacy laughed, remembering the night he met Tawana. “She just couldn’t help herself!”

“About 25 years ago, I wandered in here,” Tawana said of Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar in Nashville’s Printers Alley. “Stacy and his band was playing.”

Tawana loved Stacy’s brand of blues in a place giving a little taste of New Orleans.

“It was just his aura,” Tawana said. “I loved the way he played, and he wasn’t too bad looking either!”

“I noticed on the breaks that someone was following me around,” Tawana said, smiling at Stacy. “You were following me around! At the end of the night, he gave me his phone number.”

“And you called!” Stacy quickly added.

“Evidently, I called! It worked out obviously!”

“She branded me the second that she married me!” Stacy said, showing a tattoo of their wedding date on his ring finger. “We got married, she said, ‘we’re going to the tattoo parlor!’ 5-31-11.”

There’s a ring with a pink stone Stacy gave Tawana, a reference to a new part of their journey that began about five years ago.

“I got a call they found out I had breast cancer,” Tawana said. “I had triple negative breast cancer. I think my first surgery when I had my masectomy was March 2021.”

Tawana decided she was going to share all she was living through, posting regular updates on her social media pages.

“I started on my 12 weeks of chemo, so it’s been a day,” Tawana said in one video.

“I’m very fortunate that he’s been here the whole time,” she said of Stacy.

“I messed up a couple times, said the wrong thing,” Stacy smiled. “Overslept once. But I’m still here! It’s not a choice. It’s what you do. It was a vow.”

Stacy decided to help in a way only he could. He started selling cigar box guitars he’d made to help launch Tawana’s new mission, her non-profit Pinky the Mobile Skin Coach. She was paying it forward by giving free skincare to those living with cancer.

“We’re just called an aesthetician,” Tawana said of her training. “And to also be that person for counseling because I have been where those women have been.”

Tawana’s many surgeries made it hard for her to make all the appointments she’d like, so she’s about to launch a box of skin care products for people living with cancer.

Wednesday night brought a special gig at Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar. It was the night before Tawana’s 25th surgery.

“Little under five years ago, she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer,” Stacy told the crowd about Tawana. “She’s been through many, many surgeries. She did beat cancer, and I’m very, very proud of all she’s done.”

The crowd erupted into applause.

“It still does my heart good to be able to play for her,” Stacy said.

“You have these vows; in sickness and in health,” Tawana said. “To go through an aggressive cancer like I did, he never missed a beat. He never complained. We’re going through it together. I went through the physical, but he was going through it with me. He was right there the whole time.”

There’s a strength these two feel together, through a long love story that started in that very room.

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