Summary

Prologue: The Bike Ride. The author refers to comments made by her mother (Jan) after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, comments suggesting that dying is not the end of the world. After commenting briefly on things that she herself thinks are worse than dying, the author recalls teaching her two sons to ride bicycles, and one occasion of that teaching in particular: even though she tripped, her son kept riding. The author then describes having further chemotherapy treatments, and learning that her pain was not the pain of chemotherapy, but the pain of cancer.

Stage One – One Small Spot. The author describes receiving the short phone call from her doctor, revealing a positive diagnosis for “one small spot” of cancer in her breast. “One small spot is a year of your life,” she comments. “No one dies from one small spot...