Hopefully Ever After: Breast Cancer, Life and Me

In this true story, a two-time breast cancer survivor takes you behind the scenes–medically and emotionally–as she, with her husband at her side, fights to save her life. A true love story. Linda Barrett could be any one of us. She’s an ordinary woman living a wonderfully ordinary life–husband, kids, teaching, writing–totally unprepared for everything to go wrong at once. She discovers her breast cancer exactly when she starts a brand new teaching job which is exactly the same time as the release of her very first published novel. Secrets must be kept to protect that fledgling career. No secrets in the classroom, however, where her adult students out her in five minutes when they spot her wig! Nine years later, Linda is fully recovered from her first bout when cancer strikes again. She is not longer that random one-in-eight women who develop this disease. Blood tests show she’s a carrier of the BRCA1 gene mutation. Without drastic measures, she’d be susceptible to a third or fourth cancer hit. At the heart of this memoir, however, is a love story. Cancer is merely the vehicle that exposes a marriage in full bloom. Everyone deserves a Hopefully Ever After, and that’s what you’ll get here.