Cellmates : Our Lessons in Cancer, Life, Love and Loss

Book excerpt: ‘‘I’m Rose. John and I shared nearly eight years of our lives together. This is our story: a story of how two ordinary people live with the diagnosis, the check-ups, the disappointments, the relief, the questions, the answers, the operations, the recovery, the emergencies, the denial, the acceptance, the anger, the pain, the loss, the love, the fear, the frustration – and the happiness.’ Shortly before he died, John made Rose promise to share their story – to tell what they had learned, practically and emotionally, and convey the hope they found even in the darkest of times. He had discovered her hidden stash of letters and diary entries, which she’d been writing to keep herself sane, neither censoring nor intending them to be read. The result is an astonishing, searingly honest, real-time account that reveals our profound capacity for love and how the human spirit can endure the most harrowing of tests to emerge dauntless, flying free. (Caution: contains graphic descriptions of suffering that some may find distressing.)