Quiet Angel Publishing Blog

Where to begin?
My first blog on my first website.  Where to begin?  I wanted to begin my first blog by telling you a little bit about me, so that you can get to know me a bit better and understand why I started this website.

To begin, I am a cancer survivor.  Wow, it still seems weird to have to have those words come out of my mouth, I am a cancer survivor. Who knew?  Never in a million years did I dream I would be saying those words or living it.  But let me start from the beginning.

Baby sister
I was born and raised in sunny southern California; I have a wonderful Mom, Dad (now a step-dad) and four older brothers.  Suffice to say, “ I am the youngest and the only girl and therefore was a bit spoiled, well not really, but I let my family think so”.  Oh it was all-good until the days of “you can go as long as you take your baby sister” then I fell from grace a bit and became a nuisance.  But then the day came that I could go on my own and they no longer had to drag me along, and again I became interesting.  Then came the dating days, could you imagine four older brothers and a dad all lined up to check you out as you came to pick me up?  (I think the word is still out, but I digress.)  Really, I have had a wonderful life and I would not trade it for anything, plus I think in life all things make us stronger, especially those we pay attention to.

Stopped in my tracks
So in short, I grew up, got married, got divorce and have tried to travel the world.  I have always been full of adventure and love to see and do new things, part of the four older brothers I think.  But I had to take a break from life when I was knocked-down by cancer.  That will stop you in your tracks.  I went through a year of surgeries, chemo and radiation, and all the weird stuff that goes along with that, which bring me to this point my book, “Mirror Makeovers and savvy insights for the everyday gal surviving cancer and baldness with a sense of humor”.

Mr. Clean
I have written this book for two reasons.  One, I wanted cancer survivors to have something to relate to, to a person who had been there through the weird stuff, the hard times and the “just trying to make it through times.” And who was not afraid to be blunt.  I found that when I was going through the disease it was very hard to find books or articles on the real stuff, the “unrecognizable you” stuff and just someone with a sense of humor and not doomsday.  After all come on, you are sick, you are confused, and to top that off you look like a cue ball with eyes.  Someone has got to do something with that.  It is not so much that you lost your hair, it will grow back, it is more that you just cannot hide from the disease.  Even on the days you are feeling pretty good, boom you look in the mirror and who the heck is that looking back at you?  From my perspective, you have got to have some humor for that!  And when you think about it, whomever you might believe in, a higher power, your doctors, etc, someone had a sense of humor, because wait, first you have cancer and if that is not bad enough, you lose your hair too!  So I did the best with it in my world and went out on Halloween as Mr. Clean!  And since I did the winter baldness, I pretty much went from Thanksgiving all the way to New Years with the world thinking how festive I was, wearing a Santa hat everywhere I went.  After all, it covered up my bald head and it was soft and warm.  Plus as you will see in Mirror Makeovers, my book, I used this system as a great way to a sense of humor and at the same time, dealing with your emotions.  Because believe me, rightly so, those emotions are on the rise as well.

A journey you never asked for
And secondly, I wanted to give back.  I wanted to help other cancer survivors, as I had been helped, to deal with the challenge of going through this disease.  I want them to find humor, to laugh, to hold their head up and fight the good fight (yes, I said it; I know it is a cliché, but it works here).  And at the end of the day, find pride in themselves for fighting a battle, and taking a journey they never asked for, but survived.

View the “Power” video