In November of 1988, my twenty-year-old daughter
Erin was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. Even though Erin had
responded immediately to treatment, and in late Spring of 1989
all traces of cancer were gone, she was admitted to Intensive
Care on June 12, 1989 with a life-threatening complication caused
by treatment of the disease. On June 18, Father's Day, Erin made
her transition to what we are now aware is a new reality. Our
lives were changed forever.
From
Erin with Love: Knowledge of Life After Death, a book dealing
with after-death communication, was authored by me, but it is
really a completion of Erin's dream of writing of her experiences
in order to help others cope with a serious illness. Because
fate stepped in, her notes for her book consisted only of the
following paragraphs of preface ideas, although I have included
her personal journals in their entirety in From Erin with
Love:
First of all let me warn you that I am
not a 'writer.' I began writing this book when I was twenty years
old but I don't claim to be a writer. I'm merely a person who
wants to share my story.
During my bout with cancer I discovered
that there have been a multitude of books written on the disease,
however, I found none that I as a young woman with Hodgkin's
Disease could relate to completely. I was an active college student
in the prime of my life when I was diagnosed and, believe me,
there is a big difference in having cancer when you are twenty
and getting it at a more common, older age.
Having cancer and going thru' the treatments
was hell. I would be lying if I said it was anything better.
I hope by sharing my experiences, the humorous as well as the
painful...[unfinished].
Give this book to your friends and family
to read. It's the real stuff and it may help them understand
your feelings and theirs more clearly.
This is also the story of a young woman who
is not only dealing with the agonies of a life threatening illness
but also with an often overworked, sometimes indifferent, medical
profession. She has written of her hopes and fears during her
illness, including the realization that an 85% cure rate meant
that 15% die. There are messages in Erin's journals that point
out how very important small things such as the type of hospital
gown you are given can be, or the importance of having a doctor
who cares enough to pull the sheet up over your bare breasts.
In essence, being treated with respect as a human being. Her
journals say a great deal about the relationship between doctor
and patient; I think this message needs to be heard.
Erin's story is also being shared to provide
some source of comfort to those who have suffered the loss of
a loved one. We have discovered that death is not the end; it
is a transition from one dimension to another and that contact
between these dimensions is possible.
Erin wrote the following in her journal fifteen
days before her death. I have always felt that it was a message
to those of us who were left behind when she embarked upon her
journey into the unknown:
