I’ve been feeling exceedingly sad today, and the last couple of days, and I had a few ideas of what might be contributing, including one of my dearest, most beloved friends about to have surgery for cancer for the third time. It’s also coming up on the anniversary of my father’s death, which continues to […]
Read moreElizabeth Blue – the photoshoot by Jade Beall (part 1)
Click on any image to see them larger. These are just a few of the photos taken by the amazing artist Jade Beall, of the Beautiful Bodies Project, in April of 2012, when Elizabeth was in remission from cancer. She had finished 6 chemo treatments, and we were celebrating that she had no sign of […]
Read moreBeginning to Leave the Hospital by Elizabeth Blue
(One of Elizabeth’s essays when she was almost done with her first (and we thought only) round of chemo, followed by her musings on titles and structure for the book she planned to write about this experience. God I love her mind and and am so grateful to have these writings…) Beginning to Leave the […]
Read moreKeep Living
A Reason to Keep Living This is a piece Elizabeth Blue wrote, from the period when she was going through chemo for the first time. She was being treated for non-hodgkins lymphoma which was diagnosed 2 months earlier. The doctors had told us she had an 85-90% chance of full recovery at this point. 1.20.12 […]
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Assumptions About Life and Death
Assumptions: things that are accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof There are many things we live with as givens, as assumptions that we don’t even know we believe. Even when we do our best to live with great awareness and consciousness, they still creep in, so universally accepted in our world, that […]
Read moreA Long Journey from the ICU to Hospice – Emails from July, 2012
These entries from my emails and journals from July, 2012, one year ago, tell the story of the hardest period in my daughter’s time of living with cancer. Elizabeth Blue was in the ICU after a recurrence of lymphoma in her brain. Since June 12, 2012, she had had two rounds of chemo which did […]
Read moreThe End of our “Ordinary” Life – early July, 2012 emails
EARLY JULY As I share these emails, from early July of 2012, I realize this is the last period of time when we were living an “ordinary” life. Granted, my definition of “ordinary” had shifted, given that Elizabeth, my 22-year-old daughter, had already been through one course of chemo for lymphoma and was in remission […]
Read moreTwo Moments – by Elizabeth Blue
Two Moments December 7, 2011 I guess I could try and say a bunch of cliche and profound things about having cancer. “I’m lucky to be here.” “I shouldn’t be here” “I’m fighting for my life.” That one really gets me: I’m fighting for my life. The thing is, it doesn’t feel like fighting, […]
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Luminous Blue 