Heaven Under Construction
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Real Beauty I look in the mirror and see much of what used to be me has been taken away. My left and right breast are lopsided and covered in deep, red, angry scars. I take my emotions and confusion out on my hair, which, I think, I'll keep short. I think short hair says, “I am more than my appearance. I am the sum of my spirit, and no one can ever take that away.”
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About the Book
Jennifer knew her right breast was a little off. She didn’t think much about it. She thought she was one of the lucky ones who still had perky boobs at the age of thirty-nine. Not due to have a mammogram for another year, her husband told her to ask for one once her nipple started to turn inward. When the results came back positive she turned to journaling about her experience to try to understand what she was going to be going through physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Her raw, bare-bones, power-packed poetry tackled difficult issues such as facing mortality, dealing with loss, low self-esteem, gender identification and sexuality, fear, anger, and post-traumatic stress disorder. She decided to post her experience online as a way to keep friends and family members up to date on treatment. As a result, people came to her and confessed how her words had a powerful impact upon them either as a cancer patient, caregiver, a social-media follower, or as a family member or friend. In the end, Jennifer realized that she could reconstruct her own heaven using the life she was already given and that she could teach others how to do the same.
About the Author
“Check your breasts for lumps,” is what Jennifer knew about how to check for cancer. She wasn’t aware that there were signs other than that, so when she was told at the age of 39 that she had breast cancer, she was in shock. How was she going to tell her family, especially her two young sons? And what about her students, would she be able to work during this time? What was life going to be like with Cancer, and for how long would she have to live with the treatments? These are questions she answered for herself, and others, as she documented her experience day by day in her own metaphorical, poetic-prose way so that she could understand cancer, not just on a physical level, but on a mental, emotional, and spiritual level as well. With this book, Jennifer offers women facing breast cancer selections from her personal cancer diary filled with the answers to these questions. More importantly, Jennifer offers strategies for anyone to discover their own answers and construct their best self.