![]() When others cowered from nerves, she surged on adrenaline. She enjoyed that toughness, the test of wills. So, everyone has an idea how tough it is. “It doesn’t discriminate based on age, social stature, race. “Pool is something that you’re going to see at the Boys & Girls Club and you’re going to see it at the ritziest hotels or mansions,” Lee said. Billiards and all its angles and geometry mesmerized Lee when she walked into a pool hall at the age of 18. She experienced isolation growing up as one of the few Korean-Americans in her Brooklyn neighborhood. She appeared in a Disney film, posed in ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue and appeared in ads for Bass Pro Shops.Īs a child, she was drawn to mind games like puzzles and riddles. Lee was the rare billiards player to cross over into the mainstream realm. And because of that, Jeanette became pool to people outside of the sport and industry. She always had time for everyone and anyone. “No one in pool worked harder than Jeanette to transcend the sport,” said Mike Panozzo, the publisher of Billiards Digest. She carved her place in a male-dominated sport and earned her fitting nickname by dressing in all black and stalking opponents at the table before mercilessly defeating them. If a person can name one pool player of the last generation, it’s probably Lee. What’s my other option?”Īs much as the pain allowed her to be and often despite its presence, Lee was ubiquitous within her sport. ![]() Like, people say that I’m courageous or strong, but I don’t have a choice. You’re figuring out, ‘What can I do with what I’ve got?’ Because I don’t have a choice. “You’re not looking down, feeling sorry for yourself. “I think with each hardship, there’s something that you learn and you grow from it as long as you’re looking up,” Lee said. Stretching her arms across a pool table was agonizing. ![]() Pseudarthrosis - a condition that occurs following an unsuccessful spinal fusion surgery - bursitis and bicep tendinitis in her shoulders came later, along with carpal tunnel syndrome and severe sciatic pain. Lee is committed to pushing through, despite the odds. “When’s the next time they’re going to laugh like that again?” she said. She described her daughters as sweet, loving and bubbling with laughter. Lee said though chemotherapy has been painful, “it’s nothing compared to what I think my children have to go through watching me.” “When I do cry, it’s always about the idea of my little girls.” “I don’t want to die, and I do worry about my girls,” Lee said. Lee’s thoughts immediately went to her daughters: Cheyenne, 16, Chloe, 11, and Savannah, 10. In January, doctors discovered the cancer. The medical staff told Lee she had fluid in her lungs and sent her to a hospital. Instead of a panic attack, she now figured that she had the beginnings of a bronchial infection. Only after four days of not being able to sleep, of feeling as if she were drowning whenever she lay down, did Lee visit an urgent care center. She had hesitated to go anywhere during the coronavirus pandemic because she had a compromised immune system. Throughout the winter, Lee dismissed her trouble breathing as a sign of a panic attack. Lee recently learned that she had Stage 4 ovarian cancer, causing her to tap into her well-developed skills of persistence and to worry about the future for her children. Now, she is facing perhaps her most difficult test in a life of pushing through adversity. Doctors belatedly discovered a severe kidney infection when she finally sought help. Back pain? A given, but the agony ratcheted up even more last year. In that chase, Lee, 49, became accustomed to brushing aside discomfort, which was as much a part of her life as her nose.Ī staph infection? She bandaged the wound for a few days, hoping it would heal on its own. “I don’t know why I felt like there was a race, but I always felt like there was and every minute I was playing pool, I was gaining on the people above me, and every time I was sidelined, I was just losing that edge,” Lee said. She learned she had scoliosis as a teenager and has undergone numerous procedures for the condition.Įvery vertebra from her skull to her tailbone is fused. Jeanette Lee, better known as the Black Widow, spent years dominating pool tables despite degenerative, debilitating pain and became a top-ranked women’s billiards champion. She recently learned she has Stage 4 ovarian cancer. If you can name just one billiards player, it’s probably Jeanette Lee, who is known as the Black Widow. The Black Widow of Pool Stares Down a New Challenge: Cancer
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