I have a number of people to thank just for the fact that I lived long enough to finish this book. In January 2017, I was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, grade 4, a deadly form of brain cancer that took my aunt and my cousin a few years ago. Sadly, the prognosis was not hopeful. If I survived the surgery, which was not guaranteed, there was the aftermath of possible paralysis and a long, painful regimen of chemotherapy and radiation. By the grace of God, I had a brilliant surgeon, Dr. Suvajynar Jauikumar who, with his able team, was able to remove the tumor.
Thanks to my husband, Michael, who refused to believe the “inevitable” and a group of friends who spilled many tears on my behalf and begged God for my life, things worked out differently than expected. The surgery had no apparent side effects. As my husband predicted, I spent 1 day in ICU, 2 more in the hospital, and I managed to walk into church the following Sunday to thank the hundreds of fellow believers who had prayed for me.
I also owe a thanks to my daughter-in-law, Julie, who badgered me into transferring to the Duke Cancer center, and for also badgering Dr. Henry Friedman, the oncologist heading the brain cancer program, into accepting me as a patient. Also on my list is my radiation oncologist, Dr. Grace Kim, and my ongoing oncologist, Dr. Dina Randazzo and her team, who continue to monitor my progress and dispense medicines and wisdom.
My publisher, Light Messages, refused to give up on me as well. Wally and Betty Turnbull, the founders of Light Messages and firm believers in the power of prayer, immediately set about to put in a word or two for me with the big man upstairs. They, along with my friends Anne and Matt Holway, Delores Crotts, Phil Hollingsworth, and countless others who refused to let me die, pleaded for my life and/or encouraged me to look into alternate therapies. Thanks to God’s grace, I lived long enough to finish this book, nearly finish another, and begin two more. It looks like I will beat expectations by a long shot. Hallelujah!
Also on this list of people to thank are those who read early drafts of the manuscript, gave feedback and encouragement, fed me, visited me, drove me to and from appointments, and in general, gave me cause to live: my daughter, Mary Elizabeth, and her husband, Nick, who painstakingly researched the kind of diet I needed, scoured local markets for the right foods, and cooked; my son George, who helped my husband hold down the fort while I crawled into a hole to recover; and my grandchildren, Corinne, Ellie, Wells, and Eve, whose happy little faces gave me hope, faith, and determination; Carole Talant and Anita Lang who encouraged me to look into alternate therapies; my writing partners, Winklings Summer Kinard and Elizabeth Hein, who poked, edited, encouraged, and improved my writing; my proofreader, Meghan Bowker; Genia Holder-Cozart, who gave me gracious feedback regarding my treatment of racial issues; and my editor, Elizabeth Turnbull, for her tireless, sensitive editing, and for forcing me to confront the specter of white privilege in East Tennessee as it existed in 1931.
There are many more, far too many to list here, but I remember and thank them all, for driving me to appointments, for cooking, for sending cards and notes of encouragement, and for the many, many prayers offered up on my behalf.