I’m sure most of you are aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Signs of that are everywhere from fundraising events to football players wearing pink in support of their mothers, sisters, wives and others.

The month itself likely has a bit more meaning for those who are survivors of a disease that will claim some 40,000 lives this year while another 250,000 cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed.  While survival rates are getting better the bottom line is 1 in 8 women in this country will develop this disease over the course of their lifetime.

Jennifer Goodwin got the bad news from her doctor in August of 2015 and a month later had surgery. Today she is cancer free and feels great.  However when she first came home from the hospital little things were big obstacles and her children spotted that pretty quickly.  So the 8th grade English teacher at Toms River Intermediate South found a good way to make light of things like getting out of a chair and walking to the mailbox: she began writing a book.

Jennifer did so with a collaborator, her 11-year old daughter Adrianna, a 6th grader at TR Intermediate East and dedicated artist who contributed all the illustrations.  The result…. “Mom Is A Metaphor”, a 26-page book that was published by Archway Publishing and just released towards the end of the summer.

The book is Jennifer and Adrianna’s light-hearted tribute to recovering from major surgery in which the two along with husband Tom and 8-year old son Tommy learned to find reasons to smile.  What I noticed in reading the book is that the words breast cancer are never mentioned and Jennifer told me that was intentional.  Her goal was to write an uplifting approach to dealing with adversity which can apply to more than just her story.

“Mom Is A Metaphor” is a charming account of one woman’s method of recovering, both physically and mentally.  It’s available through amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and archwaypublishing.com.  I strongly recommend it for families, especially those dealing with hardships of a like nature.

 

 

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