UPDATED JULY 1, 3 p.m. — With Fayette County Commissioner Pota Coston battling cancer in hospice, a prayer vigil is scheduled for Thursday, July 2, from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Fayette County Commissioner’s meeting room at 140 Stonewall Ave. West in Fayetteville. Many community members have expressed the desire to pray for Commissioner Coston and her family during this time, according to a news release from Fayette County Clerk Floyd Jones.
“The prayer vigil is to help uplift the family and to help us as a community show our love and support through the power of prayer. Representatives from the many organizations and agencies Pota impacts will share the various ways she makes a difference in our community,” Jones said.
“Also we would like to take this opportunity for people who would like to write cards or want to express what Pota means to them or how she has touched or inspired their life to please bring those written expressions so they can be collected and shared with the family during this time,” Jones said.
Coston, the first African American commissioner ever elected in Fayette County, has been moved to hospice after being hospitalized in her six-month battle against cancer.
It has been generally known that Coston was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer earlier this year and has been in treatment since that time.
Fayette County Administrator Steve Rapson on Tuesday relayed information from Commissioner Coston’s family.
“Vice Chair Coston’s husband, Bernie, called me this morning with the following update of her condition. They have moved her to hospice in Union City and while they appreciate the outpouring of folks wanting to visit her, the family has made a decision to have her remembered as she was in life, ‘vibrant and full of life,’ so the family has decided to not allow visitors in hospice,” Rapson said.
Rapson asked the community to keep Coston and her family in their prayers.
Though not present at the most recent commission meeting, Rapson said Coston did represent the county in a meeting earlier last week.
The notice indicated that those wishing to do so are welcomed to send flowers to Southwest Christian Care located at 7225 Lester Road in Union City.
Visits with the family are available and someone will always be at their residence in Tyrone at 615 Westborn Drive. The phone number provided is 770-892-3364.
Coston was elected last fall from the newly created District 5, the first black woman ever elected to countywide office in Fayette County and the first Democrat on the County Commission since the early 1990s. Hers was the cover story in the February 2015 Fayette Woman Magazine (www.fayettewoman.com). She had made two unsuccessful runs at a post on the Tyrone Town Council before her successful race for the county post last fall.
