past + present
Looking back RIGHT // Jennifer Hardy and husband Ben
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february/march 2022 | DFWCHILD
PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER HARDY
BRAVE HEARTS: In October 1991, our DallasChild cover featured Mary Ann Hardy and her daughter Jennifer, already a cancer survivor at age 6. The mother and daughter from The Colony shared their family’s experiences after Jennifer was diagnosed with kidney cancer at age 2. Doctors removed Jennifer’s right kidney, and she underwent 18 months of chemotherapy. “I don’t think it’s possible to understand at that age,” reflects Jennifer, now 38, of her time on the cover. “The gravity of having cancer did not hit me until much later.” For Hardy, the memories remain fresh, and she compares the experience to being caught in a tidal wave. “We are so blessed to have Jennifer with us, but we also share in the sorrow of the many children and families that have lost the fight,” Hardy says. The illness shaped Jennifer’s outlook through other health issues, including epilepsy and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which came with temporary blindness and lesions on the brain. “Cancer was just the beginning of a long journey,” Jennifer says, “but it gave me the mindset necessary to survive the other challenges that came my way.” Today, Jennifer is thriving. She earned a master’s degree in international business from Georgetown University and now lives in Mexico City where she is chief operating officer and partner of Needed Education, which provides personalized digital transformation training and consulting services to large companies throughout Latin America. Jennifer married husband Ben Cooper in 2016, and they are expecting their first child this summer. Fortunately, she says a recent test showed her brain is normal, and her epilepsy is inactive. —Alexis Patterson
