Nonfiction

Boris is a middle-aged grocer with a stained t-shirt and a big grin. He prefers customers who pay in cash, and he tosses apples to the latchkey kids who come by after school. He donates blood as often as he can. He’s unfazed by needles and knows that his blood type – O negative – […]

The hardest part of cancer is walking into the infusion center week after week. The hardest part is smelling the alcohol swabs, wearing yet another wristband, and seeing the avocado drawing with the caption, “You guac!” The hardest part is answering the same questions about my birthday, whether my insurance has changed, and if I […]

I was prepared for the nausea, the exhaustion, and the hair loss. I was not prepared for The Taste.  After a recent chemotherapy infusion, I tried to describe the sensation in my mouth and how it affects my appetite. “Imagine putting mustard on everything you eat,” I said to my husband. “Even ice cream.” Except […]

My middle name is Ilse, after my grandmother who sold her belongings for diamonds that she hid in the soles of her shoes when she left Nazi Germany with my father and his baby brother. She had breast cancer. Died before I was born. My tumor was on the side of my left breast. I […]