Tag: cancer

The Goodbye Girl

Myra Slotnick

We stood over you with the dropper of oxycodone, trying to get it in the tiny pocket inside your cheek, the three of us, like The Witches of Eastwick, but a lot less funny. Your jaw was clenched tight like a clam because you were about to die, only we Read more

Myra Slotnick

Myra Slotnick is a queer playwright and activist living in Provincetown, Massachusetts. When Covid struck she became eager to explore other genres, culminating in a collection of stories, and several essays.

Last Act of Love

Mary Stocker Frumkin

I knew the problem was serious when Greg could not muster the energy to get himself to the ice cream shop at the end of the street. This daily expedition had become his afternoon treat to cool off from the summer heat. We were in Australia to spend Christmas with Read more

Mary Stocker Frumkin

Mary Stocker Frumkin is a retired academic and lawyer. She was born in England but lived in Zimbabwe for thirty-five years where she was first published in an academic journal. After Zimbabwe’s economic and social collapse, she and her husband, Greg, emigrated to Southern California in 1998. Mary is a member of a local San Diego writing group where she creates essays and short stories. She is working on a memoir of Zimbabwe. Her work centers around loss - emotional and physical.

Carpet Talk

Susan P. Blevins

Oh the heavy feet that endless tread my threadbare weave, heavy hearts balanced on heavy feet, heavy thoughts filling hollow heads with dread when the nurse with a voice like a cheese grater calls out “Next”, and in you trudge to offer up your blood. Cancer, the teacher with a Read more

Susan P. Blevins

Susan P. Blevins was born in England, and escaped at age twenty on her life quest, moving first to Italy for 26 years, and then to the USA, where she now lives. The older she gets, the more passionately involved she becomes in the world, and the more she wants to make a personal contribution. She believes that we can all make a difference, one hug, and one smile at a time.

All Time is Now

Andrea Quigley

I danced with the wind last night watched bits of gold in the sky saw the leaves reflect purple in the pond sat in a tree and screeched with the owls watched slumbering children grimace as visions of ogres beset their dreams felt the bulbs beneath the earth struggle to Read more

Andrea Quigley

*This is my first publication in an on-line journal. I started writing poetry in high school to ward off the weltschmerz of adolescence. As my writing continued, I developed literature courses, marketing plans, journals and workshops during my professional career, editing hundreds of essays and creative writing along the way. My love of poetry led me to study at The Skidmore Writing Institute, The Universty of Massachusetts Joiner Center, and The Cape Cod Writers Center. I have been published in 3 anthologies, as well as local newspapers and I have given readings in New York, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cape Cod as well as Martha’s Vineyard, where I currently live. I am an active member of the Cleaveland House Poets, The Poets Collaborative, and The Poetry Society - all on Martha’s Vineyard.

My Mother’s Death

Adrienne Pine

My mother’s death was a shock at first. And then it was a relief. She was diagnosed with bone cancer on March 9, 2012. She died in the last minutes of March 21. How long she had had the bone cancer, her doctor would not suppose. What was known was Read more

Adrienne Pine

Adrienne Pine's creative nonfiction has been published in The Write Place at the Write Time, Tale of Four Cities, The Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine, and other venues.

Come Back to Me Lemon

Sara Ohlin

Well, this is absolutely going to ruin my love of all things lemon, I thought as I held a lemon swab in my mom’s mouth for her. This seemingly benign, care-taking piece of her cancer meds pack. Fresh, sweet lemon scented the air for a moment, but for once in Read more

Sara Ohlin

Sara Ohlin lives and writes in Bangor, Maine. Her essays can be found at Anderbo.com (as Sara Mitchell), Trillium Literary Journal, Mothers Always Write, The Good Mother Project and the anthology, Are We Feeling Better Yet? Women Speak About Health Care in America. She’s a contributor to Her View from Home and currently writes about life, food, grief, and motherhood at www.lemonsandroses.com

They Welcomed Her to Her Death

Tricia Knoll

The word went out. No more surgeries. No more chemo. Send tributes, poems, drawings, photos, and prayers for the end of pain. Those who loved her best gathered around her bed on the mountain. Husband. Daughters. Sons. The women who would tend her for the days ahead. They told stories Read more

Tricia Knoll

Tricia Knoll is a tree-hugging feminist Oregon poet who is retired from many years of communications work for the City of Portland. She has a slight voice disabilty which makes humming sound better than her singing. Her fingernails are often dirty from working in a garden planned to attract pollinators, preserve native plants, and delight the eye with outrageous roses. Her poetry collections focus on eco-poetry. Ocean's Laughter (Aldrich Press 2016) focuses on change over time in a small Oregon town on the north coast. Urban Wild (Finishing Line Press 2014) examines human interactions with wildlife in urban habitat.

Family Fears and Invisible Illness

SA Smith

Life is hard, it’s even harder when you are diagnosed with a debilitating invisible illness. Once that diagnosis is given, it can feel like a life sentence. You start to work through a pattern of grief. At first, you are relieved to know that there’s a name for these symptoms Read more

SA Smith

SA Smith has always loved the magical life. She is the bestselling Amazon author of FOREVER, her four part young adult paranormal romance series. She is an advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. Believing that we are all enough just as we are, and needing to spread that word far and wide. Having been diagnosed with CRPS over 12 years ago, SA also uses her writing to increase social awareness of the disease. Writing is her passion. She often tells friends that writing is a journey for her. It’s like spending time with friends. "I just follow my characters along on their adventures, like a fly on the wall, and see where they take me." SA currently lives in Florida with her best friend/husband and their one son.