A Writer’s Road: A Great Teacher is a Gift

That’s me lying on the floor in 1979, playing everyone who died in The Aeneid. I was the TA for my thesis advisor’s course on epic poetry in translation. (That befuddled person on the right went on to become my husband.) On the left, is Professor Kenneth...

A Writer’s Road: Are We Done Yet?

Cancer comes with its own vocabulary. We’ve already learned about clear margins, PETscans, stomas, ports, intraoperational lasers. The latest addition to the list is scanxiety – the anxiety one feels as she/he goes into one of a long series of...

A Writer’s Road: Wearing Jeans

I started to wear my jeans again. For the past six months, due to the nature and location of my tumor, I have only been able to wear sweatpants and trousers with tie strings. But this week, I ventured into my closet, took out my most worn jeans, and cautiously put one...

A Writer’s Road: Plan and Wait

It’s hurricane season. We’ve recently watched a new tragic storm hit Haiti. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of that small island, especially now as I await a potential big storm to hit my own island home. Thirty years ago this weekend, my...

A Writer’s Road: Waiting, Again

This will be my last post for a while. Next week I head back to the hospital for what will be my second, and presumably last operation of this portion of my cancer journey. The goal is to reconnect the bits that needed disconnecting and to get my own personal plumbing...