By Dana Haight Cattani DANA HAIGHT CATTANI was diagnosed with uterine cancer in April 2012. She lives with her family in Indiana. How impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story.1 —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie When the sacrament meeting speaker began telling a story about a young mother who had …
Tag: cancer
Job’s Comforters
By Dana Haight Cattani Dana Haight Cattani was diagnosed with uterine cancer in April 2012. She lives with her family in Indiana. Or download the audio file here: Job’s Comforters A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Proverbs 25:11 Succor the weak, lift up the hands which …
Walking Into the Forest
By Rev. Patty Willis During my early years, our family lived where there were few to no members of the Mormon Church. So my siblings and I attended services conducted by my father in our living room, my mother playing the piano and teaching us Primary songs. When I was eight years old, …
Rachel, Not Comforted
By Dana Haight Cattani “But on the whole his life ran its course as he believed life should do: easily, pleasantly, and decorously.” —The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy1 From beneath her fashionable blonde wig, Darla introduced herself to my gynecologic cancer support group. A first-timer, she listed a few descriptors—grandmother, business owner, widow …
The Good Patient
By Dana Haight Cattani Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Anonymous To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22 I CANNOT COUNT the number of needle pricks I have had in the past two years. Since my cancer diagnosis, …
His Eye Is on the Sparrow
By Dana Haight Cattani I HEAR THE telltale thump. Walking to the window, I confirm what I already suspect. In spite of our decals and shiny reflector tape, another sparrow has flown into one of the panes along the back side of our house and fallen to the deck below. In vain, I watch the …
Borderlands: A Play–Part II
Continued from Part I SCENE SEVEN (BRIAN and PHYLLIS sit in the office, waiting.) PHYLLIS: I don’t know why we’re doing this. We don’t need you. BRIAN: Whatever. PHYLLIS: I run this car lot. I decide who works here and who doesn’t. BRIAN: I was told to wait here for Dave. Is that …
Borderlands: A Play–Part 1
Introduction Borderlands marks a place of intersection, a liminal space where roads end but new paths begin, where no horizons reveal themselves but also where collisions do us harm. I’m a believing, practicing Mormon, and Mormonism is at its most essential a religion that preaches literally endless human possibilities, eternal progression, and growth. But we …