‘God is going to have my back’: Hilton Head woman an inspiration in her fight against cancer

Tonya Miller of Hilton Head Island, who was an inspiration in her long fight with cancer, died early Saturday at her home. She was 40 and leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter.

As doctors moved toward a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in January 2016, she kept hearing them say, “It can’t be that. You’re too young. You’re too young.”

She remained cheerful as family and friends rallied behind her, raising funds with purple T-shirts emblazoned with #TonyaTough.

A friend organized a benefit gospel concert that Tonya called “a night filled with praising God. There was no sadness.”

And then she said, “That’s what I’m going on — God is going to have my back through all of this.”

Last year, friends and neighbors held a fundraising Gullah feast on the banks of Skull Creek at Squire Pope Community Park to support Miller and two neighbors also diagnosed with cancer, Celesta Johnson and Veronica Young.

At the time, she said the ways of Benjamin Stewart, her great-grandfather who spent his working years on the water running a shrimp boat, taught her the solace of an island.

“The water is the place I go for peace,” she said.

Being raised in the home of Floyd and Betty Miller, she and her brothers, Reco and Brandon, were always expected to work. Her primary job growing up was at the Harris-Teeter supermarket on Main Street.

Tonya went on to get her undergraduate degree at Francis Marion University in Florence and a master’s degree from Webster University. For 12 years prior to her illness, she worked at the S.C. Department of Vocational Rehabilitation in Beaufort.

Marshel’s Wright-Donaldson Home for Funerals in Beaufort is in charge of arrangements.

This story was originally published September 30, 2017 at 6:36 PM with the headline "‘God is going to have my back’: Hilton Head woman an inspiration in her fight against cancer."