As anyone with an eye for pink has deduced, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Here in Chicago, the night skyline – from the Hancock Building to the Willis Tower (a.k.a. the Sears Tower) – is aglow with rose-colored lights. These blush beacons are reminders of the loved ones lost and the work yet to be done to understand, combat and prevent breast cancer.

 

The displays of pink that appear each October are intended to draw attention to breast cancer, but they…

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Just before Tim’s sixth birthday, it was decided to repaint his room.  Gi had seen ideas on shows such as This Old House and the like and thought of doing an outer space theme.  She searched out swatches of paint to find the perfect night sky shade of blue and with a new sewing machine she made curtains with a planet theme.  For days she scraped, spackled…

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On June 21st 2011, my 16 yr old son Ruben died from complications from brain cancer.  After a week with a headache in May, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and rushed to Yale.  It was a very aggressive , rare, cancerous tumor.  In 3 weeks he went from people perfectly healthy to undergoing several surgeries, one round of chemo, and losing 20 lbs.  He died from an infection in his bowel from the chemo, that caused him to go into septic shock.  There is truly not too many more horrific…

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26.2 miles I walked for a man I never met. Yet I felt him by my side encouraging me as the hours passed and the challenge grew harder and harder. “Keep going,” he urged. “The pain you feel is nothing compared to the pain of cancer that I suffered from.” Jack was right, of course. Battling cancer was a far greater fight than anything that bright October day brought to me. My pain was…

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Yesterday was six months!  The numbness is wearing off and the REAL pain has set in. 

I

I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote the original version of what would become Sisters: The Karma Twist , my latest novel.…

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My husband passed away in our home suddenly a year ago. My 14 year old is having difficulty in school. Please pray that we can find peace. Also we need to move into a cheaper apartment but can not come up with a deposit. We are in financial trouble because our rent is too high. We look at the place on the floor where he fell and died and it is breaking our hearts. We need to move somewhere we can find peace and heal. Anyone wanting to make a small donation would be appreciated. J London, 2258… Continue

My caregiver experience was short. My 86-year-old mother was not recovering from surgery and began to fail. Despite competing pulls, an ailing parent, a job, and a teen preparing for senior prom, I rushed to my mother’s side and helped her stabilize. Ultimately, I felt quite fortunate to have had that special, loving time with her as my mom died just seven months later.

 

A friend became a caregiver to her mom after she was diagnosed with dementia. Her mother lives in an…

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I lost my mother a week ago. I lost my father back in Feb. It has been a really rough year on me,

especially the last week. The gut wrenching pain still comes and goes. I miss my mom and dad!