A Beautiful Burden

I had a special relationship with Sushila Blackman, compiler and editor of Graceful Exits: How Great Beings Die .  We met when I was three, ...

Promotional shots given to mom as she researched this article. From mom's own pen: Dr. Sisson invited me to be the Executive Direct...

Photo by Arthur Nelson Trever, 1933 Chicago World's Fair. A Divorce Followed by Breast Cancer by Lois Trever Janet and her husband ...

Here's another remarkable "Wild Woman" in the media, though I may need a translator.  Sonia Velasquez,  originally from Colo...

Tree I am no longer afraid of mirrors where I see the sign of the Amazon, the one who shoots arrows. There was a fine line across my che...

Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there I do not sleep Do not stand at my grave and mourn I am not there I have been born I am th...

An agoraphobic, alcoholic, ex-synchronized swimmer. One of the most creative characters to don a patch was Lily Charles, aunt of Charlott...

Taming of the fox. It's cheating to use a whole book for Strawberry Friday, but I can't help it.  Mom introduced me to the boo...

I had no idea there were so many ribbons to promote cancer awareness.... From the Choose Hope website:  Ribbon colors and meanings ...

Mom says, "I went around the house the next week singing Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar."  What follows I find ...

If I lie inside the covers With the darkened warm of breathing-only me And I curl up like a kitten, Closing all the blankets very caref...

  Lightening by Ramona Handel "Lightening won't strike in the same place twice.  Janet won't have cancer.  If I think posit...

I'm going to skip ahead here.  The important thing to know is that at then end of Chapter 4 mom is feeling like a top, brand-new VW mode...

Wild Strawberry viewed on MamaKopp  Etsy account. Wild Strawberries By Shel Silverstein Are Wild Strawberries really wild? Will they...

What is it about an eye patch that makes a woman mysterious, sultry, even sexy?  No doubt an eye patch means something different on a woman ...

Pirate Story Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing. Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea. Winds are in the air, they are bl...

Collage from the Eye Patch Quilt. The question mom poses throughout Chapter 4 to advocate for those with facial difference is: what's...

Look familiar?  This poster has been, and is, a staple of therapists doors since the seventies.  Some people grew up with Peter Rabbit, Wi...

My brother Andy and bewildered me.  Still sport those looks. Moral of this next story- never take a bet against my mom.  In her own word...