In 2005, Alicia Parlette was a young copy-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle (where my pal Jon is now wine editor) and she had already lost her mother to cancer when she, too, discovered she had it.
She wrote movingly about her struggles with the disease, and then...seemingly disappeared. It's her right, of course, to take her life private, but of course those who'd come to care about her through her writing worried that she'd gotten worse.
According to someone who met her at a reading back in November, she's well and strong. Good news!
If you have time, read through Alicia's old entries, still cataloged on the Chronicle's site. This really should be published as a book.
It reminds me a little bit of "Being Brett," the story of Brett Hobbie (her mom was the artist Holly Hobbie...yes, of the dolls). Brett didn't get a happy ending, but her story still inspires, and reminds me not to take life for granted.
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2 comments:
Wow, that's good news. When she first started posting her stories, I tried to follow them, but things were so bleak for her that I couldn't bear it. It's really gladdening to hear that she's doing better.
Thanks so much for posting this link - I'd wondered what had happened to Alicia, and feared the worst.
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