I woke up this morning to learn that an old friend and mentor died of Cancer yesterday. I don’t know what kind of Cancer she had, but it seems to have progressed rather quickly and painfully. While Joan is certainly not the first person I have known to die from Cancer, she is the first person to do so while I’m in the process of surviving Cancer, so it’s a little more personal. There is no comfort to be gained from distance. In fact, there is no distance. Please don’t misunderstand. I require no reassurances. While the Chemo can make me feel like death, I have little concern that mine is imminent. In no way do I feel like Joan’s dying has brought me face-to-face with my own mortality. I’m not being brave; I’m simply responding to the positive PET scan results, the words of my Doctor and the nature of my particular brand of Lymphoma. For someone who spends their days immersed in make-believe worlds, I've the soul of an empiricist. (Irony acknowledged.) I’m not sure how to describe m