Thursday, March 30, 2006

Book Report: Mom's Cancer

I went on Saturday to our local Barnes and Noble, armed with gift cards and my husband. Well, my husband was along because they were mostly his gift cards. One was for Christmas, and I already decided I wanted to buy the book Mom's Cancer and also Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know. Well, unfortunately, they didn't have Lori Hope's book in stock (or maybe fortunately, if it was sold out), but they had about 8 copies of Mom's Cancer available. So, I read a couple of pages, and got to a point where I started thinking a lot of Laurianne and rather than cry in the middle of Barnes and Noble, I stopped reading.

When I got home, I got to page 33 before I stopped reading. I noticed a lot of similarities between Mom and my sister. They both got to that path in life differently, but the treatment is similar. It took me three days to read, not because it is a difficult read but because I was distracted by other things as well. I also plan to read it again next week.

It is a very honest look at how family reacts to situations. I liked the part about how families in a crisis draw on their strengths and NurseSis, KidSis and Brian all become superheros. I kind of reminded me how my sister said that she felt like a 5 year old, because my parents kept making her eat and would put food on her plate and tell her to take one bite. Later, my mom said, "Well, she acts like a 5 year old sometimes too!"

I think it is important to remember that this is Brian's perspective also. His sisters and mom might have seen things differently. I know I didn't really get to see all the things my parents had to go through with my sister, or the struggles she had. I am sure if you asked me something about my sister's illness, you would get a different answer to the same question from my parents or brother. But isn't that true of how memories are? I did get updates, and was aware of a lot of what was going on.

I would recommend this book to anyone who knows someone who is going through cancer. This is a story about a mom going through lung cancer, but I think many people go through the same experiences. There is parts in the book about quitting smoking, but that message doesn't overwhelm the story. And quitting smoking or never smoking at all is the number one preventative for lung cancer. If you are trying to quit, you may even want to read to see what you might have to go through from the habit. The note in the back said many people told Mom that her story helped them to quit. I also thought the end of the story was very well done and hopeful. But I am not going to give it away!

Links:

• www.momscancer.org
• momscancer.blogspot.com
• kidsisinhollywood.blogspot.com

Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) :: 1:01 PM :: 1 people are more aware ---------------------------------------