当我成了这本书的母亲 - 安·惠特担当其中的“助产士”

Jul 31, 2026

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A reflective introduction frames a children’s book about surviving cancer, confronting the emotional reactions it evokes in others—sadness, shock, pity, and reverence. The author recounts a lunch conversation with Ann Wheat, a camp director, who argues that children who live with cancer deserve optimism and inclusion by voices from their communities. The narrative then introduces Camp Sunrise in 1987, where unique routines and “MED SHED” rituals highlight how hope coexists with treatments and uncertainty.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages112

Reading Time4 h 42 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The reactions to a children’s cancer story

Ann Wheat’s proposal

Camp Sunrise in 1987

The “MED SHED” ritual

Teen sharing and listening

[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) IF IAM THE MOTHER OF THIS BOOK, THEN ANN WHEAT IS ITS MIDWIFE AND THESE ARE ITS CHILDREN. [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Introduction Whenever I told someone I was writing a new book, they would break into a smile and ask, "What's it about this time?" When I said it was a book on children surviving cancer, the expression on their faces changed. Their eyes took on a look of pain. Their smiles disappeared and their lips formed a firm line. They looked at me with a pity usually reserved for a woman who had just lost her bank card. When I explained that it would reflect humor and optimism, the look changed again—this time to one usually reserved for a woman who had just lost her mind. Cancer and optimism were not considered compatible on this planet. It occurred to me that this is what the children in this book see every time someone looks at them. At the moment they stop being a kid and turn into a child with cancer, the smiles disappear. Every face around them reflects a mixture of sadness, shock, pity or—worse—reverence for someone chosen to suffer. Okay, to be honest, I had some misgivings myself at first when Ann Wheat, a young, energetic camp director from Camp Sunrise in Arizona, invited me to lunch to discuss a "project." "Kids with cancer need a little booklet or a pamphlet—something to give them a shot of optimism," she said. "Not every kid who has cancer dies, and they need to know that. They are isolated by the disease and its treatment. You cannot imagine how important it is for them to hear the voices of classmates, siblings, grandparents, doctors, counselors, teachers, friends, and parents who share their nightmare. "You can do something upbeat," she pressed. "I know you can. Why, I'll bet you didn't know that teens have a contest to see who can wait the longest to throw up during chemo." Be still, my beating heart! Was this the humor on which I was to feed? Without speaking, I summoned the waitress for the check! Ann fired her final shot. "Look, there are anywhere from forty to ninety percent of kids out there with cancer who are surviving it. They deserve to be counted and they deserve a chance to live their lives as normally as is possible." She was right. I could gather a few statistics, talk to some people, and pull together a little booklet in a matter of months. On a Wednesday morning in July 1987, I flew to Camp Sunrise, just outside of Payson, Arizona, to get acquainted with my material. It was your basic camp with musty tents and mosquitoes that should have been required to file flight plans. The ultimate goals of these campers were not unlike the ultimate goals of campers everywhere: (1) to use food for the purpose for which it was meant to be used—fights; (2) to go home with the coveted Dry Soap award; and (3) to sock it to the staff. The last is deftly accomplished through a sixtypiece kazoo band at midnight, hanging a nurse's bicycle from the diving board, and planting things in the counselors' beds that crawl in the night causing them to hyperventilate. But the differences in this camp were not exactly subtle. Artificial limbs and a wheelchair were stored in the corner of the lodge. Several of the campers were bald. A counselor with one leg told me how she visited a border town in Mexico that had had a rash of car-stripping incidents. So she took off her prosthesis and propped it up with the foot showing above the window ledge of the van so someone would think the car was occupied. Not your basic crime fighter, but it worked. But there was another ritual that pointed out how unique these campers are. It happened around three in the afternoon when little kids with holes in the knees of their jeans and sagging socks climbed down from the trees, came down paths from their hikes, and abandoned their places on bases of the ball diamond. They headed for a small room with a handmade sign that read "MED SHED." Sandra Priebe, who descri

FAQs

为什么这本书的主题会让人们的表情发生变化？

当提到这是关于孩子在癌症中幸存的书时，人们从微笑转为痛苦与怜悯，因为癌症与“乐观”在他们的观念里难以兼容。

作者最初为何对这个“项目”有疑虑？

在与安·惠特讨论时，作者听到她用幽默的方式描述治疗相关的经历，于是担心这是否正是需要喂给孩子们的乐观形式。

Camp Sunrise的哪些细节体现了孩子们的独特与处境？

营地里存放假肢和轮椅，部分营员秃顶；并且有固定的“MED SHED”服药仪式，孩子们在那一刻仿佛被迫离开童年，回到治疗与不确定中。

Jul 31, 2026

Upload by Violet