Fourteen years ago and four months after burying my mother who had lost her battle with cancer, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My father had also lost his battle, years earlier. I was grateful neither parent had to know of my diagnosis. It would have broken their hearts.
After Chemo, I was told that I had a 94% chance of living another ten years. Thankfully, I am one of the lucky ones. I am still here! And I am eternally grateful for each and every day.
In the early years, I kept the details private, only sharing with a select few. Then, along the way, I started writing about it. It was indeed cathartic. Actually writing it down also increased my conviction that Breast Cancer needed to be talked about. Honestly and openly. Essays became short stories. Short stories then evolved into my first novel. The Final Canoe Ride.
The main character in my first novel, Meg, is fictional, but her medical details were what I had actually gone through personally. It wasn’t easy sharing all the unpleasant details. But I had hoped, along the way, to be able to somehow shed light on a situation that still needs more understanding, more research and more development.
Because there were so many stories in my head and in my heart, I kept writing after finishing my first book. I have just finished the final draft for my sixth novel. In all my books, my character Meg lives on. Either in the “fictional flesh” or in the spirit.
I do believe that we all have the resiliency to overcome obstacles, no matter how impossible they may seem at the time. We can all move forward, here on this earth. With hope that there is indeed a future for us, whether it is in the here and now, or somewhere out there on the spiritual plane.
Inger Margaret Foster, Author 