Joanna, thank you so much for this essay. My mom died when I was sixteen, and she'd been sick since I was very young, too. I really connected with what you said about having been the girl of the sick mother. It's a really specific experience within the "girl with the dead mom" realm, and it's nice to connect with someone else of that experience.
UGH when this book came into my life (about seven years after my mom died), I read it with my jaw on the floor, so shocked that so many of the experiences I'd felt alone in were actually VERY COMMON amongst young women who lost their mothers.
Yessssss I had no idea this was happening until yesterday, but I will SEE YOU THERE unless I get swallowed by a pile of slush.
A note about Cara Hoffman - her book this year was called, Be Safe, I Love You, not Love You, Be Safe. Just saying so that more people will find it and read it and cry over how excellent it is and she is because IT IS SO GREAT. As is her first book, So Much Pretty.
The link to the LA Review of Books Review, before I clicked on the text of the full post, redirected me via google ads to a site trying to make me "volunteer abroad." That was distressing.
This is the only essay about cancer I have ever liked. Thank you.
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madderka 
Ruckus