Editor’s note: Pacific NW magazine’s weekly Backstory provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the writer’s process or an extra tidbit that accompanies our cover story. This week’s cover story follows a cancer survivors’ journey toward healing — and her new self — around Mount Rainier.
ONE DAY ON Whidbey Island, I spent an afternoon exploring Coupeville, a charming village on Penn Cove. Having recently had tests looking for cancer, I wanted to distract myself from health issues by taking a walk through the town.
On my walk, I thought about my doctor visit, berating myself for having had biopsies on Friday the 13th of December; I was the only patient foolish enough to show up in the waiting room that unlucky day. Ever since I’d moved to Whidbey four months earlier, I’d been confronted with 13s. Even the lot where I built my cottage was number 13. Though I think of myself as a logical person, those numbers caught my attention as I tried to divine my fate.
As if to alarm me even more, a black cat emerged from a store called Far from Normal and walked right in front of me. Just a silly superstition, right? In Europe, black cats have been associated with witchcraft, and the number 13 with death. I tried to ignore the symbolism of the cat and the bony fingers pointing their dire digits at me.
But the creepiest thing was yet to come. As I walked up the hill toward the Lavender Wind shop, I noticed some vintage cars with elaborate paint jobs parked along the street. That’s when I stopped short. I often was called Barbie as a child, and among the restored vehicles, I saw a white hearse with my name on it: Barbie Dream Hearse.
“My ride is here,” I thought, not sure whether to be amused or horrified. The driver, Kat, had renovated the old hearse inside and out with the theme of a Barbie Dreamhouse and drives it as a limo for hire. If I had to go, I’d be riding in style!
Though my eventual diagnosis revealed breast cancer, I (spoiler alert) have lived long enough to be a grandmother. The last chapter of my memoir, “Reconfigured,” ends with me holding my grandchild.
I’ll end this Backstory with a foreword story: a trip with my family to Mount Rainier in June 2022, after my cancer treatments, while there was still snow covering the meadow at Paradise. Having enjoyed winter weather as a kid, I felt right at home making snowballs with our grandson. The sun was shining, and, as I looked around Paradise, I felt like the luckiest person alive.
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