Leila Abu Saba
Leila Abu Saba, of the blog Dove's Eye View, passed away yesterday after a long struggle with cancer. Laila was a frequent reader of this blog and, especially in its early days, a prolific commenter. She was dedicated to peaceful coexistence among Palestinians and Israelis and, more generally, Muslims, Christians and Jews. We agreed on these issues but disagreed about her pacifism (or my anti-pacifism). She was an optimist, as this entry on her blog from a year ago, "Hello Kind World" shows:
I just wrote a post at Daily Kos in response to somebody else's "Goodbye Cruel World" Diary. The diarist was facing loss of job and house, and said she might not be able to go online any longer; hence "goodbye cruel world" of Daily Kos. I called my response Hello Kind World.
There's always hope. Let me tell you that I am living with metastatic breast cancer. When they found it last year, it had spread throughout my liver, a 1/2 inch tumor in my lung, and onto rib and spine. I am now 46 with two young sons and a loving husband.
I just finished eleven months of chemotherapy in which I got infusion every week, three weeks on, one week off. 33 infusions. Took the starch out of me (as well as all my hair down to the eyelashes). Pet CT Scan shows the lung nodule is gone - no trace of it; the bone lesions are sclerotic i.e. healing, not spreading; and the liver lesions are inert, back to scar tissue. Nothing "lights up", i.e. nothing is active and cancerous. My blood counts are now "stone cold normal" according to my oncologist. So I am off chemo and I get to go on about my life, under close supervision and taking oral medication.
Today I listened to my friend's feedback on the 260-page draft of my first novel, which I had finished writing during chemo. I'm ready to get to work on the next draft! Then I picked up my kids from daycare, fed them, checked homework, read to them and put them to bed, all by myself. (Hubby was at a work-related dinner). First time I've had them on my own in over a year. I handled it! I even enjoyed it, which means my energy level is good. This is a blessing and a reprieve.
Unfortunately the cancer returned. We'll miss you, Bedouina.
[Also see tributes from Philip Weiss and Pat Lang.