Heaven Under Construction

Jennifer knew her right breast was a little off. She didn't think much about it. She thought she was one of the lucky ones who still had perky boobs at the age of thirty-nine. Not due to have a mammogram for another year, her husband told her to ask for one once her nipple started to turn inward. When the results came back positive she turned to journaling about her experience to try to understand what she was going to be going through physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Her raw, bare-bones, power-packed poetry tackled difficult issues such as facing mortality, dealing with loss, low self-esteem, gender identification and sexuality, fear, anger, and post-traumatic stress disorder. She decided to post her experience online as a way to keep friends and family members up to date on treatment. As a result, people came to her and confessed how her words had a powerful impact upon them either as a cancer patient, caregiver, a social-media follower, or as a family member or friend. In the end, Jennifer realized that she could reconstruct her own heaven using the life she was already given and that she could teach others how to do the same.