Stories

Nancy Hale

"Cancer has been the most positive experience I have ever lived through. I now live life to its fullest, living one day at a time. I more focused on being well and staying well." I lived in Essex Junction since 1991 and am retired from the HVAC business. For 30 years I was married and are blessed with…

Scars Gone

I used to see the scars and dwell on themThey used to consume me in the morning as I dressed for the dayThey would take over my thoughts and ruin a perfectly good start to a normal dayBut now I don’t see the scars anymore. I don’t see the scars anymore.Oh yes I know they are still there.But I don’t…

Poems in honor of Ondis Eardensohn

Companionable Silence Companionable silence, Without a companion Is only silence. Not absolute silence, The house still creaks           In wind and cold The furnace still           Wheezes on and off; The water filter still gurgles Through its daily ablutions. But these are mere mechanical…

Lisa Crowningshield-Buck

I am one of the 186 women who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year in Vermont.    Freshly separated from my ex-husband, hoping for a new start, I sure got one.  On July 24, 2008, at age 42, my life changed.  My rectum, really?  That personal, private, modest place.  Sometimes it still stings…

Post Mastectomy Reflections

Today I went for a walk…towards The Farm. I have always gone "towards The Farm". My "Earthly Mother" and dear friend lives there. I walked slowly and with intent. I walked across the field and sat on the rock across from the farmhouse. There I could see the wind blowling through the trees, the moss on…

Laurie Grout

You are just told " I am sorry, you have cancer". I remember that day so vividly like it was yesterday. I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I was determined to beat this on my own. That was not a good idea. I was having anger issues as well as guilt issues and was not sure how to handle them. One day…