Rewriting Illness

A Memoir

by Elizabeth Benedict
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I loved this piece and pre ordered your book! You are writing for me as I continue to navigate my way through Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I was diagnosed 2018 and your words describing your experience are so familiar. Thank you for articulating your shock and also your expectations of what you thought would happen in the hospital.

Although it will be difficult to read about someone’s bout with cancer, it’s familiar territory for me. Despite my multiple treatments (all advanced but still barbaric) I am terminal. The final shock of dying too soon has settled in and the suspense is over. I feel at peace with whatever time is left of my life. Your friend is right—cancer humbles you. I kicked and screamed my way to humility. And I got a bonus: I am no longer ignorant to suffering and disease. There is so much richness to write about and your words will brilliantly evoke your personal journey. I plan on sticking around long enough to read your book and cry and laugh in a deep and profound way. Here is hoping that others will connect with you in the same way.

Thanks so much for writing and I'm so sorry I didn't see your comment until now. I would love to hear from you if you read the book itself, and now that I look you up, I see you are a photographer doing beautiful work... I would love to support this work. Let's be in touch elsewhere. You can find me on my website (elizabethbenedict.com) if I can't reach you another way. Many thanks for your kind, candid words.