Husband & wife lead several congregations even as her battle with cancer upends their lives

DOUGLAS — When Douglas Episcopal priest Jennie Ketner was diagnosed

with cancer in November 2022, it dealt a massive emotional, physical and life-altering blow to

her and her husband, fellow priest Tom.

But it wasn’t long before they turned that “blow” into a blessing.

“The first four days, we did nothing but cry. Every time we looked at each other, we just cried,” she recalled earlier this month.

Then on the fifth day, she decided to put on a Christmas movie while she put up the tree. One movie kept showing up on her list: the documentary “Heal.”

So she watched it.

And a major shift happened in her thinking and understanding.

“I said, ‘I’m going to let go of fear and I’m going to let go of stress.’ And I did. I never imagined that that could really happen, but it did,” she said.

Jennie’s mental state changed drastically that day to “There will be no sadness.” She now sees her fight as a form of ministry.

And not just for her, but for Tom as well.

“I really believe that God has us, we’re a team in this,” she said. He “has us to speak to other people and bolster them and encourage them not to give up.”

It’s a ministry that has taken hold in her daily life. She has helped many people battling cancer or other life-threatening conditions to take on a more positive outlook. With the late Sue McBride, she helped form a support group in Douglas where people could share “their cancer journeys” in uplifting, non-judgmental ways.

Tom the caretaker

Tom takes his role as a caretaker for his wife of 49 years and the Douglas community as a whole seriously, a mentality which was cemented in March 2023 during a walk along the bike trail by the North Platte River. He and Jennie were sitting and watching eagles while talking with a friend of theirs.

“All of a sudden, the one on the nest gets up on the edge of the nest and calls over to the other one, and the other one comes and takes its place,” Tom said. “And I’m going, ‘Okay, that’s my job, when she calls, I come.’”

The now-retired popular high school teacher cares for Jennie within a day of her getting chemo and other treatments. They go to their living room or what Jennie calls her “sacred place,” a little fire pit area on the side of their house where they burn cedar to help in the healing process.

Early on in Jennie’s cancer journey, the two of them went to a Native American art show in Casper, where artist George Leonard gave Tom some red cedar.

“He went out to the car, and he brought this little medicine bag of the red cedar, the medicine cedar, he says, ‘Now you make sure she uses this.’ So since then, we’ve been using red cedar that I’ve gathered.”

When they do the burning,Tom places the cedar and some charcoal into a black pot. Jennie takes the smoke from the cedar and “washes” it over her body with a feather she carefully holds to guide the smoke. The whole process brings healing energy to her, they were told.

Jennie believes it does, even if it just stimulates a positive energy in her.

And that feeds into another way Jennie helps keep her mind positive: visioning. One resource she uses is to see her treatment as a metaphor.

“Before I got diagnosed, we got a new weed in our yard called spurge, and I could not get rid of

it. Someone said I needed to get a goat because they like to eat it, and they pull it up by the roots.” Jennie said. “So when I was first diagnosed with cancer and started to do my visioning, I would envision my white blood cells and my T-cells. I picture those cells as being little goats and that the cancer that was in my pancreas and my liver as spurge. I picture these goats eating spurge out there, pulling it out by the roots.”

Their ministry is guide from above

The Ketners have been serving as priests for the Episcopal Church throughout mostly eastern Wyoming since 2020 and 2015, respectively. 

And they are not shy with their multiple congregations about Jennie’s cancer journey. They not only keep the congregations up to date on the battle but often offer it as a lesson for dealing with tragedy.

Jennie’s journey sometimes even plays into her sermons. During chemo weeks, for example, she often needs to sit down during the sermon because she is low on energy. Despite this, she still preaches the Gospel with enthusiasm.

The Ketner’s faith is a big part of their lives. For Jennie, it has shaped her outlook on life and her journey.

“Whether I live or whether I die, I will not be afraid, and God is always with me. And so that’s where my faith is right now,” she explained.

It also helped shape a healing journey for Tom. After getting his leg smashed between two cars, he said, he sensed God and Jesus at his hospital bedside. Then the Holy Spirit moved into his cast and told the couple  that he would have a healthy leg. This communal relationship is something that Tom holds dear.

“I don’t know why I retired (from teaching) at 55. God just said, ‘Do that’, so that intuitive relationship with something bigger has always been there. And, according to Richard Rohr, that

makes me, that makes anyone, a mystic who has had an experience with the divine, with the sacred.”

Rally of faith

The church community has rallied around the Ketners as well, with parishioners checking in on them every week and offering them prayers.

The Wyoming Episcopal Church featured Jennie’s story in its magazine on two separate occasions as a way to help others.

And the Douglas community – along with the other ones where she has preached – has consistently been with her in spirit. People ask how she’s doing and offer their words of support wherever she is caught out and about.

Despite her positive outlook, Jennie’s cancer journey has come with its fair share of scary challenges. Along with multiple Whipple surgeries, in which the patient’s organs are taken out, tumors are cut off, and the organs are put back in, Jennie had five separate hospital stays near the end of 2025 due to complications with chemotherapy. The final one even caused a scare with her family, prompting family members from across the country to come visit her, which they referred to as her “funeral.”

Despite it all, Jennie has kept a positive outlook – which is summed up by a plaque under- neath the bell in the Stella Beard Infusion Center at Memorial Hospital of Converse County:

It says: “What cancer cannot do: It cannot and will not destroy confidence, cripple love, shatter hope, take away peace, corrode faith, kill friendship, shut out memories, silence courage, reduce eternal life nor question the spirit.”

This story was published on Feb. 18, 2026.