Tag: cancer
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Keep reimagining cancer equity in Africa with stories and people that shape your life!
As a Ronald McNair scholar, our advisors at Penn stated noted we had to speak with researchers who were doing similar things we were interested in. Dr. Teresa Tassoti asked if I knew Dr. Collins Airhihenbuwa. I said no and she noted that I should go speak to him. The reason, like so many undergrads,…
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Keep falling leaves and orange trees!
Some thoughts remain like shadows, creeping till sane things become insane, even as you retain, all that keeps you sane. These days some thoughts have been persistent, attacking like cancer, as if life has no hope, wanting instead to leave one helpless, as if on a downward slope to all things inferior. These days too,…
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Keep witnessing.
When a woman dies, and her cervix is to blame, catapulting her from the prime of her life, to her grave, what remains as a witness to her life, her stories, her cervix, her silenced voice? Who will resuscitate a life cut down by cervix? As I watch my life story slowly change, with cervical…
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Keep asking why?
Everything changes, the moment you hear the word. Life flashes through in a second. None of us can cheat life. None can escape the battle of death. I have tried to understand 2021. Fast runners never win their race. A fish still gets caught in a net. No matter how hard I tried, I still…
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Keep the power of unexpressed love with grief!
Grief is love unexpressed. I learnt that today watching an Instagram video of Andrew Garfield as he talked about the passing of his mom. To him, grief is a beautiful thing. Grief is also unexpressed love. He hoped his grief will remain with him as he never got time to express all the love even…
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Keep stories with implementation science and cancer research in Africa.
I presented at the 2021 AORTIC Cancer research in Africa. There was a pre-conference the past two days and I was asked to lead this morning with a discussion on why implementation science research for cancer in Africa. What many people do not know was that the invitation which came July 12, came exactly one…
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Keep asking questions!
Maybe we should have talked more often. I should have asked more questions too. Not just hello, or how are you or Ke maka Di gi, or Chekwube? But have you checked your cervix lately? When was the last time you checked? Did you collect the sample by your self? What did the results say?…
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Keep welcoming mama home!
Mama returned home today. About two months after the greatest heart-wrenching ordeal, the longest mutterings of sorrow, of hearts completely in despair. Our hearts are still broken, still shattered in pieces. But seeing the glimmer in her eyes, made it clear; we would get through this deepest darkness. And the darkness is so deep, still…
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Keep Langston Hughes “Drum” in mind!
‘Bear in mind, that death is a drum,’ notes Langston Hughes in his poetry entitled ‘Drum.’ To him, it beats forever, until we answer it’s call. The call is not for the dead, but those living. Death is a drum calling those living to come. I can hear it’s pulsating beat. It thuds louder on…
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Keep our love, Angie, till we meet again!
The outpouring of love for a live gone too soon is love. To bask in the thoughts and prayers of so many is love. To bid our Angel farewell, for a life gone to soon, but lived full, is love. To see tears streaming from eyes hungry for you, is love. To hear whispers of…
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Keep building legacies, even beyond death!
There was a 90 year old woman, I came across, unafraid to die. She had lived life on her terms. She wanted no heroic measures. Only to go meet her maker in peace. She even had a green folder full of information in preparation for whenever she became unable to make decisions on her own.…
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Keep releasing butterflies!
We released butterflies in the air the Sunday before she died. Our neighbor invited us over to their home to release the butterflies they raised. It was our first Sunday without mama, our first Sunday full of despair, full of grace to bear all we knew we had to do to. Angie had woken up…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 