Cancer in Two Voices

Excerpt: "I am only the first among our friends to have cancer. There will be others... Such a weighty responsibility, to be the first... I am trying to live self-consciously (and perhaps die self-consciously) in an exemplary manner. Many of my friends will see their future in the way I handle mine".

Barbara Rosenblum wrote these words on March 7, 1985, two weeks after she had been diagnosed as being in the advanced stages of breast cancer. She died in the arms of her life partner, Sandra Butler, on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1988.

During the three years between Barbara's diagnosis and her death, she and Sandra documented the impact of Barbara's illness on both of their lives. Cancer in Two Voices, first published in 1991 and winner of the 1992 Lambda Non-Fiction Award, is the result of this collaboration, a unique glimpse into the intimate lives of two women in a relationship during a time of crisis. This compilation of Barbara and Sandra's essays, journal entries, and letters is a testimony to the power of love to transform experience, to celebrate life and love in the face of impending loss.

Since its publication five years ago, thousands of breast cancer patients, their families, friends, and heath professionals have been comforted and inspired by Cancer in Two Voices. Because breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women today, Barbara and Sandra's words ring as true today as they did when first written. Spinsters Ink proudly presents a new, expanded edition of this ground-breaking work. This is the 2nd edition.