I am a survivor
November 26, 2009 marked the first anniversary of my undergoing a surgical lumpectomy for breast cancer. On Thanksgiving Day I added to all that I have to give thanks for, most especially my life and family, gratitude that I am a survivor. I received the bad news of a negative biopsy just after Barack Obama's election as President. My diagnosis seemed so unreal, standing in the hospital parking lot talking on my cell phone with my son. I did not know what to expect, and felt very apprehensive. I was living alone in a city far from family, stressed out by struggling with two small business in an economy that was in free fall. That month I lost the last of my students and income from the one business. All of the appointments with my doctor and the nurse at the cancer center were a blur, as they discussed the treatments, surgery followed by radiation and possibly chemotherapy. Overwhelmed, I turned to my faith and began praying a novena to St. Anthony for a mirac...