Junior Superhero

She saw her mother hit by cancer at 33

Watched as she fought back and won

And learned what it takes to be a superhero.

Today they fight for the cure side by side.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

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This bit of bragging is done for Sunday 160, hosted by Monkey Man.

Warning! Books Can Be Dangerous!

How important is reading to you?  To your children?  To our future?

Starting in childhood with the school library and the bookmobile that came around the neighborhood in summers, and continuing through the present, books have been my loyal companions, my fellow travelers to new lands, cohorts sharing many exciting adventures, food for the brain and balm for the soul.

They are cutting so many school programs these days. Can you imagine if they cut reading programs?

My daughter Lisa (many of you know her story) is a teacher, and is in the process of finishing her Master’s Program in Moderate Special Needs Education.  For one of her classes, she is working on a big research project about childhood reading, and how it impacts adult reading habits.  She has created a short  (it took me less than 5 minutes), anonymous online survey to gather data.

Will you give Lisa your input about reading?  Please take a few minutes to complete the survey yourself, and ask your friends and family to take it too.

The deadline is Friday, April 15.  Yes, I know some of you have something else due that day, but this will be a lot more fun.  And I know Lisa will be very grateful.

Here’s the link to the survey:

Reading Survey 



This is a cross-post, also appearing on my creative non-fiction blog, PattiKen and the Muses - Home Away From Home.

She Speaks

This is a repost of today's post on PattiKen and the Muses - Home Away From Home.  I don't normally do this, but this one is important enough to make an exception.

Besides, I'm a proud Mama. ;-)

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You have all read my posts in which I told you about my daughter Lisa and her fight against breast cancer.  She is The Superhero I wrote about.

Today, she speaks for herself.   These are her words.


Mine Is Not To Ask Why

This month, a little more than most, I think about what I have been through, what I have lost, and what I have gained. I never ask, “why me?” I am always grateful it was me. I had my mother’s strength and my father’s stubbornness to get me through it. Someone else may not have been a lucky as I was…am.


October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but for some of us, those like me and our families, every month is breast cancer awareness month.   When you hear those words, “you have cancer,” you are never more aware.   That feeling, the awareness, it never leaves you.

Tonight I sat with my daughter and watched a speech by Kelly Corrigan (breast cancer survivor, author) posted by my mother.  Emily and I held hands and cried together, grateful for what we have gained and all that we are lucky to still have…each other.

Sure, I have been through what some call “Hell,” but I never saw it that way. For me, it was just a journey to get to the other side.  Just one more thing to get past and then move on.  People sometimes say to me, “so-and-so died of cancer.”  My only response can ever be, “I’m not doing that.”



For me, having treatment and getting on with my life was the only choice.  IS the only choice. Surviving is the ONLY choice.

Now, I use my experiences to make others aware of just how a diagnosis of cancer can change your life, even if it’s not you who is diagnosed.   My cancer affected everyone around me: my parents, my husband, my little boys, and my daughter.  Now I spread the word through my writing, my big mouth, and by walking the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer every year and raising money for research and other programs.

Mine is to do.

The Superhero

Like everyone younger than logic, she was fearless. Flying high on wings of inexperience, she took risks most learn to avoid and tempted Fate at every turn. She lived in a Land far from reality. She was eternally optimistic: there was plenty of time to grow up, time to move on, time to get ready, and time to get ahead. She had, after all, all the time in the world. There were endless Tomorrows stretched out ahead of her. Playing fast and loose, she beat odds she didn’t even know were against her. She was invincible, indestructible, immortal.

And then one day, her Land was invaded by a Monster and his legions. They assaulted many of her givens, and caused the rest to take shelter in denial. The air became rank with fear, as the Monster’s bombs of destruction exploded first here, then there, threatening the very way of life throughout the Land. She had never thought something like that could happen to her, and she was terrified.

But the one thing she wasn’t was dumb. She quickly realized that the Monster could not be allowed to run rampant though the Land, and that he had to be stopped before everything was destroyed. Casting fear and denial aside, she dug out her best cape, always useful back in her flying days, and put it on. And she became the first Superhero the Land had known.

She fought with all her might, long and hard and desperately. There were times when she was down, wounded and tired, but she quickly got up again, took up her sword, and resumed the battle. The war raged for many months, and though she won some and lost some, she never lost her will to survive. She fought on, until one day she realized the Monster was gone. She had won.

After the war was over and the smoke had cleared, she looked around and surveyed the rubble left behind. Many parts of the Land had been ravaged. Where once there had been bounty, there was now barrenness. Structures had been flattened. Expectations had been unalterably altered.

But she knew the Land could be rebuilt, and it was. New structures were erected, looking as good as those taken down by the Monster. The seeds of new prosperity were planted, and new expectations developed.

But one unexpected outcome of the war was her realization that life in the Land was perhaps not as eternal as she had once thought. Perhaps there really wasn’t all the time in the world. Though one might suppose that this was a bad outcome, one would be wrong. After having fought and won against the evil Monster, the Land was moved closer to reality and life was made forever better. Foundations and armaments were reinforced, made stronger than before to protect against any future attacks. Social programs were put into place to prepare the Land to be more self-sufficient and successful in the future.

So while she occasionally missed the wild and free antics she’d enjoyed before the Monster came, she was happier than ever before. She had learned that, true, there were not endless Tomorrows laid out in front of her, but Today was a much better place.

She never really put away her cape after the war, though. Battered and torn though it was, she kept it nearby, just in case she might need it again. She was a Superhero, after all.

They Walk

Last month, they began to walk. Thousands strong, they “walk as one” in nine cities, “in it to end it.”

Because they walk, 120,000 amazing people have raised $320 million to date for breast cancer research and treatment.

Rain or shine, they walk 39 miles, stopping every so often to rest, get water, and get their blisters treated.

They walk for their mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and friends. And some of them even walk for breast cancer-stricken men.

They walk wearing pink, lots of pink. Pink hats and shirts. Pink bandanas covering bald heads. Pink signs and banners, emblazoned with the names and pictures of loved ones. Pink ribbons heralding their commitment to the battle against breast cancer.

They walk for those still fighting, and for those who have lost the battle.

They walk because they are healthy, and they walk because they are not.

They walk with the bright smiles of hope, and they walk with the tears of loss.

They walk for tomorrow. They walk for the cure.

They walk for you.

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My daughter Lisa is a breast cancer survivor. In a little over a week, she will be walking for the fourth time.  This is her story, in her own words.

My Story

This May I will be walking nearly 40 miles over two days as a participant in the Boston Avon Walk for Breast Cancer for the FOURTH time. I am honored to be walking with thousands of others who have made the same courageous commitment to help raise awareness and funding for this devastating disease. Together, we will sleep in tents, shower in semi-trucks and push ourselves far beyond what we ever thought we were capable of doing.

Why am I doing this? Well, let me tell you my story. In February 2006 I found a lump. At my next prenatal appointment (that’s right, I was pregnant-- seven months to be exact), I brought it up with my doctor. She sent me for an ultrasound of the mass. That led to a biopsy which then led to a mammogram. Two days later I was being told I had breast cancer and that I would need a modified radical mastectomy. Cancer, at 33. Who would have thought? And while pregnant. I can’t tell you how scared I was. But both the baby and I had no trouble with the surgery. Eight weeks later (three weeks after Jack’s birth) I started chemotherapy. I had eight chemo treatments over 16 weeks throughout the summer. During the fall I had 30 treatments of radiation. I am now on hormone therapy and feeling great. I am grateful for the science and research that allowed me the treatments to make a full recovery. Unfortunately, while I made my recovery, others were diagnosed with breast cancer, one about every three minutes.

Now I’m on a mission. The more people I talk to and the more money I raise to fund the fight against breast cancer, the sooner the numbers of women being diagnosed will start lowering and the sooner a cure will be found. I truly believe that finding a cure to one cancer will be the key to unraveling the mysteries of many cancers. Too many people have had their lives torn apart by this disease. I refuse to idly sit by and watch it happen. So why will I walk? Because I can, and because I need to. My commitment has become part of my healing process. And the event itself is a huge part of that process.

Excerpted from Lisa’s Avon Walk for Breast Cancer web page

Falter

Taking Velvet Verbosity's 100 Word Challenge seems like a good place let the muses out to play. The word "falter" is the prompt of this week's challenge, and after some faltering themselves, this is what my muses came up with.

Falter? Who wouldn’t?

Watching her fight the biggest challenge of her life, I decided (with great pride, I admit) she was by far the strongest woman I had ever known. Oh, it’s not that she didn’t occasionally falter. She certainly did. Who wouldn’t? Breast cancer, at 33 years old, while pregnant? That would be enough to knock anyone down. But surely the truest measure is whether one gets back up and forges on. And that she did, with such grace and aplomb, it took my breath away.

Three years past it now, she’ll defiantly tell you, “I had cancer. Cancer didn’t have me!”