Downey candlemaker emphasizes importance of health checks

Marcella Gomez is owner of Oh Comadre Candles. (Photo by Alex Dominguez)

DOWNEY — Marcella Gomez was a “healthy 48-year-old.” Sure, she wasn’t running as well or far as she usually did on her jogs along the riverbed, but it was a stressful time. As a mother and a nurse in the middle of a pandemic, she was working hard, and was understandably fatigued.

Besides, it wasn’t the first time she had ever found a lump.

Gomez, now 49, allowed herself every excuse in the book not to get checked.

“Shame on me because I sat on it for two to three months,” said Gomez. “I put it aside because I took care of other things, there were other issues occurring. That could have cost me.”

She got the call from her doctor on Oct. 20, 2020. It’s a day Gomez now says she will never forget.

“She said the words you don’t want to hear: you have cancer,” said Gomez.

Gomez counts herself as one of the lucky ones; her cancer was discovered early, and the process of dealing with it began swiftly.

“Kudos to Kaiser…I went to a place called the Breast Center; they did the ultrasound and the mammogram that same day, and that’s when they realized [the cancer] had spindles, and they got the process going. Oct. 20 they told me I have cancer. By the day before Thanksgiving, I already had a mastectomy.”

“I feel I’m lucky because it’s Stage 1, it didn’t spread. Even though I sat on it, I’m lucky.”

As she continued to face her cancer, Gomez found comfort in another endeavor: making candles.

Gomez started Oh Camadre Candles in her garage in 2015. She says that making candles is “like a therapy.”

“I started making candles as a form of therapy for my nursing job,” said Gomez. “It’s a form of release. I have fun with them because the candles celebrate life.”

“I want them to evoke emotion, maybe memory, comfort, even a laugh.”

To her surprise, Gomez’s candles would draw a whole new supportive community to her side.

“One interesting thing about the candles is I post them, and I developed a social media following,” said Gomez. “Social media gets a bad rap… but in my case, when I was diagnosed with cancer, these virtual people that follow me, not only did they pray for me, they’d send me messages, they’d send me flowers, they’d send me cards.”

Gomez, now in remission, wants to emphasize the importance of routinely getting checked.

“What I want to say, for my fellow women, men too, is to check themselves,” said Gomez. “If you find it early, your prognosis is good. Don’t be afraid.”