Ode to My Breasts, a Eulogy and a Celebration of Life

The Breast is Yet to Come…My Journey Through Breast Cancer, Treatment and Reconstruction

Photo Credit: Southern Charlotte Photography. I wanted to capture some before pictures but wasn’t quite comfortable going nude. The black splatters represent cancer. If you look close you can also see a purple line down the center of my chest and two purple diamonds where they would cut to remove the breast tissue

Watching the new Little Women movie…

in the theater several weeks ago, I was struck by the fact that I never really grieved the loss of my breasts. Or celebrated their life. Since chopping them off due to breast cancer a few months ago.

There’s a scene in the movie where Jo has just cut off her hair and sold it in order to give her mother some money to take care of her ailing father. Jo, who’s generally more concerned with books and writing than beauty, nonetheless sits sobbing on the stairs as she intensely grieves the loss of her beautiful locks.

“Your one beauty!” her sister Amy proclaims dramatically.

And I sat there in the theater with tears running down my own face as I recognized and felt the profound grief the actress so perfectly portrayed. Until then, I hadn’t felt it. I had moved so quickly to triumph and silver linings, as I always do.

Just as Jo chopped off her hair for a reason and a purpose, a bold expression of life and freedom, taking control in her own small way…