Dear Mrs. Bachman...

By Sue | Published: September 25, 2008

  I’m sitting here as an adult, numbering some 60 years, looking at my desktop. It’s the first time I’ve seen my desktop in a few weeks… not that I’m a slob, just that it’s tax time… a lot of paper work… anyway, there remains only 1 item… a Day-Timer… my brains on paper, which is also a joy to write in. I have a few really beautiful pens which are an added treat… and the process of making an [...]

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Our 2009 calendar...

By Sue | Published: September 24, 2008

Starting with this week’s survivor, Scott Arthur, the next 12 weeks will be featuring the “Calendar People”… their portraits, quotes and stories… The calendar is being published by the Canadian company, Custom Calendars… a division of Metro Media. They have given us the option of either ordering directly from them for $26.00 per calendar, or gathering orders through the PAFOC site and reducing the cost with a bulk purchase… for instance, $20.00 each for a bulk order of 50… shipping [...]

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Dreaming...

By Sue | Published: September 12, 2008

Your dreams can often tell you a lot about what gets trapped in the brain-drain… especially if it’s a chemo brain-drain… things that are part of the flow of life that somehow snag and never stream on out… first there is one little snippet which you just don’t quite let go of, then another flash of an impression or an image which smacks up against the back wall and sticks… pretty soon you have a smorgasbord of totally unrelated, yet [...]

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Survivor tent, Komen Race'08

By Sue | Published: September 10, 2008

We had almost 200 portraits hung this year in our 20×20 tent… It was very cozy and the wind made for a very moving experience! Many people visited with you all, even those who were just taking a short-cut stopped to tune in with some of you… other people went through the whole show person by person… The Race was a great success once again, although the neighbors of the park have forced Komen to seek another location next year… [...]

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Paul Hilts' story, testicular cancer

By Sue | Published: September 10, 2008

Paul was the person on the original team who tackled the job of coaxing stories out of the survivors I photographed that first year, 2006. He set the tone and the look of all the stories you will be reading, and he went about his task with the diligence and the kindness which characterizes the person he is… Our stories are all unique, yet all the same… they are the personal closets which we have all flung open, in part [...]

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Survival, Life's lesson...

By Sue | Published: September 3, 2008

I got to thinking about survival yesterday… at first, I was thinking in terms of humanoids, but that quickly morphed into anything on the planet… “WE” get to do survival before we even take our first breath… expelled from the Garden of Eden as it were, where we were gently rocked in a bath of perfect nurturing, never suspecting what lay awaiting us… well, I  had a premonition in my amniotic bliss that things were going south, and after 28 [...]

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Georgia Hanson... Sept.3, 2008

By Sue | Published: September 3, 2008

Georgia Hanson is currently the director of the Aspen Historical Society, but has been in town longer than God practically… hers is the fertile mind which originally came up with the idea for a gallery of survivors for the Komen Aspen Ride for the Cure in 2006… of which she was a co-chair with Elaine Grossman… she called me to see if it was something I might be interested in shooting, knowing that I was just emerging from my own [...]

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Super heroes...

By Sue | Published: August 23, 2008

In the spring of 1999, as I was signing up for my accounts at AOL and eBay, I was listening to a new NPR broadcast named “This American Life”… the subject that particular day had to do with people who believed they had super-human powers… the story I remember in particular had to do with a very young man who came to believe that he had skin which could withstand scalding water… this belief being cultivated from his morning showers. [...]

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Survivor portraits 2008

By Sue | Published: August 21, 2008

Tuesday August 19, I spent the day in Grand Junction photographing 25 outstanding people, dogs and various accessories for the offical start of the 2008 Survivor project. Those will be on display in the St. Mary’s Cancer Pavillion starting September 22, and will be a focal point of the gathering of the Colorado Cancer Summit 2008 (Tools for Survivorship) when it convenes on October 6-7 in Grand Junction at the Doubletree Hotel. I will also be touching base with the [...]

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Living by rocks

By Sue | Published: August 19, 2008

We live at the edge of a spew of volcanic rock which has blessed us with as many different shapes and sizes as there are flowers in the garden which meanders through them. In the course of excavating this merger of the hand of the Creator with the hand of the mistress (moi) one boulder revealed its self to me in all of its weighty and substantial mass, as if to say, ” I dare you to try and move [...]

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The BlueJay

By Sue | Published: August 13, 2008

I watched a young BlueJay assess the accessibility of the bird feeder… corralled it for about 10 minutes… up & down the tree, east to west, close-up and farther away… young blue plume dancing with the discretion… cocky as hell… finally decided to make his move… pause lurch launch miss flutter fall swoop angle arise… once reunited with his perch, darting glances left and right to make sure nobody saw… practice makes perfect. SGD

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Sun set_

By Sue | Published: August 12, 2008

The sun set so quietly, I felt the caress. Light fell ever so gently and slipped blue fingers of shadow into the black… the bees slip-streamed the air currents with their legs of dewey pollen_ that sweet mystery, sweet light, sweet life. SGD

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So much to do_

By Sue | Published: August 11, 2008

Sometimes, when there is so much to do, you just have to find a way to putz… Speaking as a pro putzer with some 50 years experience, it can be either productive or just plain-ass worthless… but it will always give you that space between intensities where you have the prerogative to avoid whatever it is that can wait until tomorrow… indulge yourself! SGD

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An auspicious date_

By Sue | Published: August 8, 2008

Today is 08.08.08_another auspicious date such as this was 45 years ago, 6.6.66… Oldfields School, class of ’66. Mr. Nevens, head of school, pulled a few strings and finagled the date for our graduation to secure that place in history for our class… The guy did get stuff right… that, and some wonderful teaching… 45 years ago… wow, I must be getting old, or maybe it’s just the world that’s aging and I am in this little bubble where I [...]

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Our Web site is up and running!

By Sue | Published: June 16, 2008

At last, our blog website is up and running! Each week I will try to put up a fresh portrait and survivor story… a lot of you will need to share your stories with me for both this presentation, and eventually for the book… this will also be the place I will post news about events and fellow survivors, and where we can share things with each other and the world at large. I hope that, as people find their [...]

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