Poet (and cancer Survivor) teams up with Composer

Breast cancer Survivor Annette Pashayan wrote a series of poems about her cancer experience and teamed up with composer Ella Milch-Sheriff. The result is called "Songs from the Edge."

Watch a video clip.

Read an article.

Check out Ella Milch-Sheriff's website.

Cool Project!

The Story of a Suit

Once upon a time there was a young woman with a good job. The job paid quite well and was reasonably fun. It also required that the young woman own a lot of suits. She preferred Ann Taylor suits over all others.

Slowly but surely, things changed in the young woman's life. Stuff happened in both the corporate arena and her personal life and the young woman ended up becoming a Stay-At-Home-Mom. Naturally, this paid nothing - but it was reasonably fun. Her suits gathered dust and slowly went out of style. Yes, even classic garments have limited life spans.

Years passed and the woman became not-quite-so-young. She also moved many times. Slowly the suits were given away.

This past April the woman, now forty-something, needed a suit for a trip to Washington DC. She was very excited about this trip - she was going to do some breast-cancer-public-policy volunteer work. But of course because it was volunteer work it paid nothing. She did not buy a suit from Ann Taylor. No, she bought a suit from the clearance rack at a nondescript department store.

While trying on this suit, an elderly woman (who was also trying on suits) gave the forty-something woman a hard time. The elderly woman chastised the forty-something woman for buying a trendy suit.

"You shouldn't buy that suit. That little ruffle is too trendy."

The forty-something woman ignored the elderly woman's advice, and has worn the suit several times now. Her career has been ramping back up and the suit has come in quite handy. The trendy little ruffle has actually received several compliments. Right now, the skirt is a wee bit tight on our main character and this has put her in a funk - but that is a story for another day.



The End.

The Trendy Little Ruffle

A Conversation with Anita DuJardin Hockers

Anita DuJardin Hockers, author of "Breastless But Still Breathing", was kind enough to do an email interview with me. I was really curious about her writing experience.

So here is the interview, with Anita's answers in italics:



When did you start writing your book? Right after radiation treatments, 8 months after diagnosis.

How long did it take you? Crazy...but it only took about 6 months to have a book ready to be published. My editor/publisher was fabulous and I guess I had a hidden talent for writing.

Did you have journals to help you remember details? I did not journal. Hard to believe. I did keep a calendar of all my appointments. When I decided to write it all down, I opened up the calendar and tried to remember everything about every appointment I had had.

I'd imagine that going through the writing process would invoke a range of emotions. What was that like for you? Very emotional. The truth...I hated reliving it. I did it because I wanted to remember and to have something concrete for my daughter. I also wanted to help the Ribbon of Hope foundation.

Toward the end of the book, Anita wrote that "I never thought I would say this, but I recommend that anyone going through a rough time in life should write about it. Writing this book made me aware that we as humans have to let go of things in order to move on." I asked her to elaborate:

I was never a believer in writing things down. Never journaled. But after I put it all on paper, I realized that it can only help someone else going through this and after all, isn't that what it is all about.

Writing a book was not the goal to me. The goal was to help other women in my shoes understand that they can beat this. They can move on.




Thanks, Anita. I hope this blog post inspires someone to get busy writing!


Links:

Breastless But Still Breathing,

Ribbon of Hope