Mar 31
There’s nothing funny about cancer. But after my diagnosis in 1990, I figured laughter could be good medicine for our family. Upon learning that my chemo pill actually was a worming medicine designed to kill intestinal parasites in sheep and dogs, I would pop one in my mouth and start barking and chasing my …
Mar 03
My Dad would have turned 96 today if he hadn’t passed away in 2011. I can still recall my last phone conversation with him after the hospice nurse called to say his time was short. We lived several hours away and even though we left as soon as we could, we did not get …
Feb 17
If you’re like me and enjoy hearing stories about people who weren’t “supposed to be here,” please meet my friend, Nancy, a long-time survivor of incurable liver cancer. In 2005 Nancy was told she had a “very aggressive” liver cancer and there was nothing anyone could do for her. “If you have anything you …
Feb 03
In grade-school science, you probably learned that a shadow is caused by the absence of light when an opaque (not see-through) object has absorbed the light. And that shadows fall opposite their light source. That’s why your shadow is in front of you if the sun is behind you and vice versa. The way you’re …
Jan 20
It’s been more than four months since I’ve interviewed Dr. Marc Hirsh about his journey with a rare cancer, so I called him a few days ago. “Just got back from a half-hour run with (older daughter)Jessi’s two dogs,” Marc said on the phone as he fixed himself a glass of juice. “You’re jogging?” I …
Jan 06
When my granddaughter Abby was 3, she’s wasn’t the best sleeper. She wasn’t the worst sleeper, but definitely not as good as her brothers, then ages 1 and 5. In fact, she was quite the master of “stalling” at bedtime and “needing” things in the middle of the night. You may be familiar with …
Dec 16
Weariness…either you’re facing it or someone you love is. I recently heard from a songwriter and new FB friend Carrie Marshall* who told me that in this weary year she has been diagnosed with a concussion, COVID-19 and cancer. “I call it the Triple C,” she explained with an added LOL. I looked up “weary” …
Dec 02
I think it was quite an understatement when Elizabeth Edwards, wife of then-U.S. Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards asserted that the wind had not blown her way. Elizabeth’s firstborn was killed in a car accident at the age of 17. Later while she was fighting recurrent breast cancer, her husband had …
Nov 11
If you had asked my friend Carollynn Supplee what gave her hope throughout her cancer journey, she would have smiled and quickly answered: Feathers. She loved Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Thing with Feathers” which begins: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And …
Oct 29
I’m a passionate football fan. I enjoy exciting, close games…unless the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Philadelphia Eagles are playing. Then I’m a nervous wreck and terribly worried until my team is ahead by at least three scores. Last week I’m watching the 4th quarter of the Philadelphia-N.Y. Giants game and the Eagles are down …
