When my mother Helen Pavlin was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer in 2009 it was a big shock to all of us. She was only 69, still working full-time and had a full social and creative life. Earlier that year my brother Louis had hosted Helen and I at a yoga retreat in Italy and she participated joyously in everything from yoga to life drawing to meditation and Nia dancing to circus and cooking classes. She was in the midst of applying for a poetry residency back in Australia and had plans to make writing the central part of her life in the next few years. Unbeknownst to us however she must already have had the cancer and the first of many peculiar symptoms made an appearance - she was unlucky enough to experience the full hand of strange hormonal effects of the cancer many of which are fairly rare. This book is a hardcopy version of the blog I kept throughout Helen's illness and dying. It started as a way to keep in touch with family and friends without needing so many phone calls but became much more. The blog is still on the web as well so you can still read it there but the hard copy is nice too..