Pulling for Suleika Really Matters

Today an article in the New York Times "Life Interrupted, Facing Cancer in Your Twenties" flooded me with memories and prompted me to post on the young woman's blog. Suleika Jaouad is only 22 and has been receiving treatment for leukemia for the past 7 months. I am reminded again that a fully lived life embraces not just the joys but finds meaning in the sorrows too. She is a total stranger, but she matters to me a great deal:

"I was 23, a new college graduate, only months into my first professional position and one year into my marriage with my high school sweetheart when I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease in 1969. Now at 66 I look back at a life long linked to the medical world - the disease itself, years of treatment and then more treatment for the problems resulting from the treatment! A second, and third cancer. It's a terrible way to grow up fast and I will never know why I was one of the "lucky" ones to survive. I vividly recall those memories I have about my peers at the time - I had no desire to share in their adventures and happy times, no wish to hold their newborn babies, fearing I may never have my own. But you sound like a survivor and it is important to keep hope alive and have faith in the advances of medicine, the love of friends and family, and believe in yourself.
I was prompted to write these words today because once when I was in the hospital someone asked me "what is the most encouraging thing people can say to you?" And I remember my response: "Just tell me about someone who survived all this - about someone who got better and lived to go to graduate school, have a career, travel, buy a house, bear a child, adopt another." I took such hope and strength from stories of survival and there weren't as many back then. I want to bring you hope - that you recover your well-self and live the life you dream, and contribute to this world in the ways we all need you to.
March 29, 2012 at 11:59 a.m.

Little Black Bag

Dressing up isn't something I get to do very often. Now that I am retired I miss getting dressed up the way I did every day for all the years I worked in the library. Once retired, I even took a job working a few hours a week at a local department store so that I could have a reason to get dressed up and go somewhere. I was very disappointed when a rule went into effect last year requiring sales associates to wear all black to work.
That's why I really look forward to the annual black tie fundraising event (Merrie Market) which is held at Visitation School. It's a chance to bring out the pretty dresses and shoes, and even wear hose! For months I have been watching a faux fur leopard jacket at work go slowly down to the "price is right" and it was the perfect topper for my little black dress.
But the real"piece de resistance" was my black beaded bag. When I carefully removed it from the box where I store those special things I treasure, but rarely use, I had a flashback to my sophomore year in college and the Christmas that my roommate gave me that bag. I remember at the time it seemed like such a random gift, something I really didn't need and couldn't imagine using. But now, looking back on nearly 45 years, I realize how many times I have clutched that bag, stuffed it with tissues for tears of joy or sorrow, and remembered my friend.