SL_HEALTH_1020_Layout 1 10 / 21 / 20 4 : 51 PM Page 1 H E A L T H A Good Place Having survived two bouts with cancer , Christine Shields Corrigan focuses on the future . BY BILL DONAHUE cancer diagnosis , such as sharing the news tories have long sustained with family members , dealing with Christine Shields Corrigan , chemotherapy - induced hair loss , and shop - nearly as vital as water ping for lingerie after a mastectomy and and oxygen . She’s always been S breast reconstruction . She also explores the a voracious reader , and she has long kept a unresolved thoughts and feelings stemming travel journal to document the things she’s from her first bout with “ the Beast , ” when seen and experienced along the way . Her she was a teenager . love of words also guided her through each “ I didn’t want to write a book along the branch of her career , first as an attorney , lines of ‘ life is short , eat dessert first , ’ ” she and then as a writer and teacher of creative adds . “ Writing it gave me the grace to nonfiction . forgive my parents and let that hurt go . A self - described “ memory keeper , ” Cor - Being a parent , I can now understand where rigan has chosen to share some of her most my parents ’ heads intimate memories in Again : Surviving Cancer were probably at . The Twice with Love and Lists , a new memoir catharsis was a nice add on . ” about her two bouts with cancer — Hodgkin’s Although she’s a “ born - and - bred New lymphoma as a 14 - year - old , and breast Yorker , ” Corrigan has ties to the Philadelphia cancer as a 50 - year - old . It’s a beautifully area , dating back to her college years , written book , reading much like a novel , in when she sculled down the Schuylkill which she details the realities of receiving River for her school’s rowing team . We an upending spoke with her about cancer’s physical diagnosis , enduring treatment , and emotional toll , how she overcame and coming out the other side of “ the dark the fear of not knowing , and what her forest , ” as she calls it . Along the way , she future holds . navigates the unfamiliar terrain with humor , horror , and honesty . Each chapter begins with a pithy to - do list corresponding to dif - ferent phases of her journey ; each list mixes everyday chores with the jarring duties of Q & A someone mired in a fight with a potentially Why did you want to share your lethal disease . story in such a public way ? “ I wrote the book primarily to help oth - The book was supposed to be a ers , ” Corrigan says . “ I’m a book person , so I list . That was the genesis . It was wasn’t going to Google breast cancer to the summer of 2016 , at the end death . I didn’t want to be a WebMD oncol - of a support - group meeting , ogist . I wanted to read about other people’s do when I was about three quar - experiences . There are plenty of cancer An ters of the way through my memoirs , a lot of them written by people stina treatment and surgery . My sur - who died . … I wanted [ my story ] to be very ele gical nurse navigator saw me honest . I wanted to have rawness on the C by and page , which I’ve never really seen in other aid , “ Hey , would you s aph cancer memoirs — this is the reality . ” mind putting together a list of togr Besides going through the surgery and things that might help others pho corresponding treatments , Corrigan sheds that I could share with thor light on other issues faced by those with a patients ? ” After recovering from Au SUBURBANLIFEMAGAZINE.COM OCTOBER 2020 24 |