by Editor
Lessons from a Cancer Journey
by Anthony Manousos
When I left my position as editor of Friends Bulletin in July 2008, my wife Kathleen and I had wonderful plans. I had a scholarship to go to Pendle Hill so I could finish my book about Howard and Anna Brinton, and Kathleen was given a sabbatical leave from the Methodist Church so she could study spiritual direction. We sold our house with remarkable speed (and at a good price!) and made arrangements to spend the summer visiting Friends and family and camping. But God had other plans for us.
That same July we learned that Kathleen had lymphoma—a form of cancer that killed her mother twenty years ago when she was Kathleen’s age (56). This was devastating news, but the oncologists were hopeful. Cancer research has made great strides in the past couple of decades, and Kathleen’s oncologist was convinced that her cancer could be knocked out with chemo in six months.