Nanette Jordahl

Chasing Sophie's Ashes Nanette Jordahl

Chasing Sophie's Ashes isnot the typical book about cancer survival. Instead it is a story not onlyabout triumph over leukemia but also about devastating loss from leukemia. The author writes in retrospectabout the loss of her husband who courageously underwent a highly experimentalbone marrow transplant process in 1988 only to lose his life at the end of afive year long battle. Incredibly, the author herself contracted leukemia nineyears after the death of her first husband. She depicts in an always open, andoften humorous, manner the entire process from the vantage point of an observerand as one struggling to survive. It is a true saga about a thirtyyear struggle, only with devastating cancer, but also multiple instances ofbirth defects in a family. The reader is not left with a sense of pity for alife gone out of control, but instead leaves the reading of Chasing Sophie'sAshes with a renewed sense of optimism and determination for the important,but often overlooked, things in life.