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Fine Black Lines
Reflections on Facing Cancer, Fear and Loneliness |
Lois Tschetter Hjelmstad Pub Mulberry Hill Press Colorado USA
1st pub 1993 4th printing 1996
This book focuses on the four years before printing of the author's life. During 1991 as a wife of 44 years, a mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 10 Lois gathered her writings. Her work contains excerpts from her journal as she encountered breast cancer woven together with selected poems and reflections.
It is a poignant journey, raw at times with its basic honesty and truth for those of us who have trodden the same pathway of diagnosis, medical examinations, and treatments.
The author reflects on the psychosocial issues that confront our lives: for instance the issue of death is described as the Final Dark, recognising that the Darkness is a gift- an opportunity to face mortality. Her poems add a dimension for healing, often through humour. They give insight into a thought that may have previously been unexplained to us in ordinary conversation. Reflections on dying out of the expected natural order of life, such as before ones parents are all felt in verse with a sensitivity that gives comfort.
I have personally gained a great deal from this book. Now 3 years on from my initial diagnosis, I can reflect on her poetry with my own wisdom and experience over the small and big issues that we all encounter. As the author says each women ultimately has to find her own way and the sharing of this woman's soul will touch, strengthen and give courage to aid the healing of others. This would be a good book for a family to read as it covers many fears and feelings that family members also have to deal with.
Reviewed by Sue McLeod 13.8.99 for UPFRONT
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