(Hearts graphic by Angie Traverse)
Nineteen years ago today, my friend Angie died from lung cancer. She was only 54. She had never smoked or lived in a house with high radon or worked in a place with known carcinogens but, by whatever combination of genetics and living, cancer appeared and was diagnosed when she was fifty.
She was treated by some great doctors locally and in Boston and she fought hard for four years and some months, but passed away on Good Friday, 2005.
There have been a lot of developments in cancer treatment since then, some of which are advertised on television. I often wonder if any of those medications would have helped Angie live longer and better.
For years, I made contributions on March 25 and on Angie’s October birthday to the charitable fund established in her memory but, a few years back, the online page went away. Now, I just remember and write an occasional post. One of my favorite Angie posts is this one, written when I turned 54.
That year, I also wrote a poem about Angie, which was published by Wilderness House Literary Review:
Fifty-four
We were the October Babes,
You from 1950,
Me from 1960.
On your fifty-fourth birthday,
You managed coffee ice cream with hot fudge
Despite the metastases in your neck.
On my fifty-fourth birthday,
I raise a solo toast with your favorite Coke-with-a-lemon-wedge
To the October Babes being fifty-four together.
*****
This October, God willing, I will turn 64.
I wish Angie were still here, as an about-to-be 74-year-old grandma, mom, artist, and dear friend. The world could use her compassion, creativity, and spirit right now.
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Joanne Corey 
I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend, Angie. Thank you for writing about her and sharing these memories with us.
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Thank you, JoAnna. I remember Angie imagining our grandchildren playing together someday, even though our children were not even adults at that point. The grandchildren for both of us did arrive eventually. I hope that her love and energy will bless Angie’s grandchildren, even though they have never met her.
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She is part of their family history at the very least and I bet her love and energy does bless them all on a spiritual level.
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❤
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What a beautiful tribute to a lovely woman.
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❤
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What a wonderful tribute to your friend. It is possible she could have lived longer, but the percentage of people living past 5 years is still only 24%. Non-smokers/never smokers are the fastest growing segment of lung cancer diagnoses. Thank you for writing about this.
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Sadly, the odds are long. Even back then, Angie lived for four and a half years with treatment. The hope is that, if there was a genetic component as seems likely, that a targeted treatment would be available if any of her children wind up being affected later in life. The rise in rates among non-smokers is alarming and, unfortunately, seems to fly under the radar until it has already spread.
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