I don't know if you guys are getting sick of me writing about cancer or not, but these days I just can't seem to stop thinking about it. Not only have I lost my mother and other family members to this terrible disease, and not only is one of my best friends losing her husband to it, but I just found out that an old schoolmate, four years younger than me, has it, too.It seems I cannot escape the impact of cancer.That's why when I saw this TV advertisement last night, I lost it. I sat alone in my family... More »

You know, I freakin' well hate cancer. This dreadful disease has taken my grandfather, my mother and a cousin. It's taken countless loved ones from countless friends. And now, it's taking another terrible toll. Just the day before my mother died, I received an email from a dear friend. A shocking, horrible email. You see, my friend's husband has cancer. Brain cancer. And on July 24, I got the news that it seems to be coming back, just a few short weeks after the initial surgery to remove the tumor, and before he had even started chemotherapy. And this kind... More »

I've spent a lot of time lately looking at pictures, old and new, mostly of my Mom at various stages of her life: in childhood, as a young adult, as a young mother, and throughout the years of my own and my sisters' childhoods and coming of age, until the photographic record chronicles my mother's three daughters as we ourselves became mothers, and she a grandmother - a time too short; too soon over.As I look through the photos, I pause often. I pause to smile, to weep, to remember.I pause to talk to her again. To tell her I... More »