Joann Snow Duncanson

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EXCERPTS: Frrom "Dealing with a Very preessing Problem" We women have finally gotten the message that even though breast cancer lags behind heart disease when it comes to the actual number who die every year, it still has us plenty worried. So much so that the number of us who have mammograms is increasing each year.

Links: The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Peter E. Randall Publisher New Hampshire Writers Project Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program Mike Sullivan at Tales Told Tall Seacoast Writers Assoc. Screamers Cafe

Not that we all enjoy going in for this procedure; it's not exactly a walk in the park. I'll never forget the very first one I had. I was in my forties and my doctor wanted me to have what they call a "baseline" x-ray, against which they would measure subsequent ones for changes. It was administered by a woman who definitely missed her calling. She should have been Nurse Ratchett in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. She was a flat chested woman who seemed to have it in for any female who had even a remotely discernable breast. "Come on, you might as well get it over with!" said she. As her rough hands arranged parts of my anatomy on the apparatus, it became clear that she must have a night job fixing Hondas................. From "Letters to My Mother" How sad that when we die we aren't given a one-day grace period in order to come back to take care of any unfinished business here on earth. A second chance to say the things we wish we'd said along the way - or to apologize for some things we did say. For instance, I would give anything to have such a day with my mother. It's not that we had any lingering animosity between us; on the contrary, as the baby of the family, I had the luxury of doing some extra bonding with her once my older siblings married and moved out. I was often referred to as a 'mistake,' but that name never bothered me - until, that is, the day I found the letters..........

TO CONTACT US Write to Joann Snow Duncanson P.O. Box 353 Greenland, NH 03840 Email: ourbooks@worldpath.net Phone (603) 431-2287

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