“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” — Christopher Reeve
When we first talked in 2007 about getting cancer patients and their families to tell the world their stories, we had no idea what kind of response we would get. We guessed maybe a handful of people would be willing to write so that The Independent could run a story every three weeks during that summer.
That was more than 18 months ago.
Now, 32 stories later, we are putting to bed the newspaper version of “Cancer Stories: A Chronicle of Personal Journeys.” Writers will still be able to tell their stories at our Web site.
Our aim was to look at cancer outside statistics and science, to consider its personal impacts. Who better to tell those stories than people who have lived with the disease?
Not surprisingly, the 32 stories were laced with courage and anguish, life – and death, joy and grief – all connected by some form of cancer. Among the thousands of words were real people, real families, real life.
The photos, too, told the stories: Cody Boltz’s scar, a constant reminder of his cancer; Kathleen Andersen’s stethoscope, symbolic of her nursing career and care of her late husband, Gary, who died of leukemia; Wilma Luther’s gaze into the light of a Relay for Life candle, a symbol of the power of the survivors lap she walked.
For us as journalists, each story, each family, each journey was a discovery, too.
We found unending eloquence in the writers’ simple truths. We found steely resolve, every stage of grief and, in the face of a cancer diagnosis, a realignment of what is important in life. We found families — dignified, solid and functional, despite the enormous upheaval and stress cancer can bring.
We found humor in the face of sadness.
We found, in every story, a deep, clean well of hope.
Journalists are taught to keep an objective distance. When life and death lingered around every conversation, every anecdote, every memory, every story, however, we found ourselves well outside our safe professional space.
We are grateful for that.
— George Ayoub and Scott Kingsley
Tags: Our Final Thoughts
