This book is informative and woven into the book is Meryl’s incredible sense of humor. She had a positive impact on many people during her life, and I believe her influence will continue through her writings. The information in the paragraphs below are from the book.
I retired as an airline pilot in 2005 and had my first cancer two years later. It came, it went, and didn’t resurface as a metastasized tumor until 2015.
That episode in 2015, including the excruciating surgical removal of a large mass near my left hip, came and went, but the brain tumor(s) that began in 2018 sort of acted like it went away after surgery and radiation, but instead dug in and made itself at home, inviting lots of friends, apparently. I don’t know what they have against me, but it’s obvious who’s in charge, and it isn’t my doctors, and it isn’t me. It’s THEM–the cancers. I can put on a brave face all I want, but the outcome is obvious and let’s just say–it’s looking great for Team Cancer and not so great for Team Meryl. Not that there isn’t room for a miracle, but that’s about all we’ve got left. As the title of the book says, “WE ARE NOT AMUSED.”
Not even a little.
It’s February 2019, and I am writing this, flat on my back in bed at home, with as many as fourteen malignant tumors from head to hips. They seem to be competing to see which one is actually going to kill me. My laptop is jammed up on my chest as I’m too weak, dizzy and just plain sick to sit at a desktop computer which, believe me, would be a lot easier.
I’ve decided I’m just not ready to check out quite yet and knowing I’m not really in control of anything, that continues to be my attitude. I’m not going to change who I am because of cancer, and I choose always to find humor if there is any to be found. I’ve discovered that there is almost always some to be found somewhere. Sometimes you just have to try harder than other times.
I have had a group of nearly 50 family and friends who I have been keeping informed with Updates. I send them out as needed, sometimes a few times per week and sometimes far less, depending on how I’m doing and what I’m doing, medically speaking. I always try to make them informative but light in tone, even funny sometimes (well, I at least think they’re funny).
There was “Creatures of the Swamp” (referring to my soaked bed due to night sweats from steroids), and “Death of the Ravenous Beast” (also referring to steroids and the backing off of the voracious appetite when I got off them). “Karaoke MRI,” tells how I handled so many MRI’s and having to lie so still for so long, so often. In this book, I have included some of the content, and some full Updates, which run less than a thousand words. I feel some are worth adding in their entirety.
So this is a story of my journey through cancer. The mistakes I made. The statistics doctors believed instead of me. The pain, the letters I wrote to let friends and family know what was going on, and what we could laugh about whenever possible.
The following is a quote from a woman whose life Meryl had an impact on.
Below is a quote from a woman whose life was positively impacted by Meryl.
“I am so sorry about Meryl’s passing. As you probably know, she was someone that had a much larger impact on my life than I did to her. She was the inspiration that showed me that women can fly too, and I always think of her when faced with difficult decisions or situations (especially related to being female in a male-dominated industry). While career is an important part in one’s life (and Meryl’s was quite impressive, both with being a pilot and all of her writing endeavors), she always seemed to remind me that the most important thing in life is family/friends with the way she always talked about you and all of the family pets over the years. She really was an inspiration.”
Courtney R.
