Synopsis
In the mid-nineties, my wife was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, which had metastasized to her lymph nodes. The essay “Coping with Breast Cancer” details what happened in the wake of that diagnosis. We decided to release this composition in the hopes of helping other couples confronted with this terrible disease. In the fall of 1994 we were living the good life. We’d just bought our dream house and moved in the previous July and were looking forward to our first holiday season in our new home. Only one thing placed a cloud over our lives at that point in time. My wife had a mysterious bloody discharge from one breast. She had also lost a considerable amount of weight and I was beginning to become concerned. My wife was reluctant to agree to go to a doctor but finally I managed to elicit a promise from her that she would go to see a physician the day after Thanksgiving. That morning we got into our car for the drive to the doctor, never suspecting that our lives were about to be forever changed. I sat in the waiting room while my wife saw her gynecologist. I saw her come back out just a few minutes after she had been escorted back to the examination room. She was pale and said that the doctor had told her we had to go to the hospital at once for a mammogram and that the doctor was calling ahead to get her worked in that day. She broke down and cried on the drive to the hospital and expressed her sense of dread saying, “The doctor says she’s afraid it might be breast cancer.” That was the first time I heard the words breast cancer in relation to my wife. The doctor was true to her word and the people at the hospital were expecting my wife when we arrived. She was immediately hustled back into the radiology area where she underwent her first mammography at age 35. Tensely I waited, not yet comprehending what was happening. My mind seemed numb, almost as if I had consumed a vast amount of alcohol. I guess I was in a sort of state of shock. I nervously thumbed through some brochures sitting in a rack in the waiting room. As I did so I told myself that there had to be some mistake. My wife couldn’t have breast cancer. Not my Sue.
About the Author
My name is Ricky Sides. I was born in Florence, Alabama, in May of 1958. My paternal grandparents were sharecroppers. During my early childhood I spent a great deal of time on their farm, which was bordered by thick woodlands. I roamed those woods extensively, which worried my grandmother to no end. I learned my work ethic on that farm where I often helped with the cotton crop. In 1976, I met and fell in love with my wife, Sue. We were married in 1977, and have been together since that day. During the month of September, 1980, our son was born. That same year, I began to study martial arts, and did so until the early 1990s. After learning that one of my female students had been sexually assaulted in the past, I gravitated toward specializing in teaching women self defense. This year I released a book on women’s self defense titled The Ultimate in Women’s Self-Defense. That book fully explains just why I invested years of my life in attempting to help women. It was originally written in 1992. In the early 1980s, I met a Vietnam veteran who shared my love of the woods. We struck up a friendship. When he learned that I wanted to become skilled at survivalism, he decided to teach me. I wrote the first draft of The Birth of the Peacekeepers in 1985. The character Pete Damroyal is based upon the old friend who taught me survivalism. He still has the mate to my dragon dagger. That will mean something to people who’ve read The Birth of the Peacekeepers. But many of you will not have read it, so I will explain. Much of the character, Jim Wilison, is autobiographical in nature. Of course, much is also fiction. Those who have read the series would probably be surprised to learn just how much of my real life is reflected in the experiences related by the character. Brandy is the most personal experience related in the book. I think I added those scenes to book one as a form of tribute to her. Some might argue that I shouldn’t have done it, but it made me feel better. In a way, when people read those scenes the child will be thought of with compassion. Those scenes were added in the extensive rewrite in 2007.
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