Marrow is an introspective and illuminating look at what it means to watch someone you love endure cancer. Lesser herself describes Marrow as a love story between two sisters. And it is. It’s the path of love that isn’t always easy or even accessible but that one must discover and ultimately accept. In this way, this book speaks about truths--human truths. Lesser puts into words feelings we all know, can identify with and have experienced. She talks about the dizzying experience of emotions in chaos and how they can make your mind go round and round.
But Lesser also acknowledges that there is a reliable quiet in the midst of all that turning. “The still point is there. It is always there. I know it. I have found it again and again, even within the most turbulent whirlwinds. It may take a while, but at least now I know there is a still point, and that the storm will pass and the center will hold.” This is something we all can identify with: What human has not been thrown into the spinning cycle of anxiety, a hamster wheel. The still point is something we all seek, especially when diagnosed with cancer. Finding that still point can be an ongoing challenge but is one that people with cancer yearn for. Upon learning of her sister’s relapse, Lesser writes of trying to find the still point and find meaning in her sister’s recurrence. She writes, “Have Faith, my soul said. You’ll see – your sister will grow from this; she’ll rise to meet it. And you will too. You’ll grieve, and you’ll learn, you’ll rage and you’ll worry but through it all you will grow deeper and deeper into the truth of who you really are. You will, Maggie will, all who travel with her will uncover surprising treasures because of the path her soul has chosen.” Here, Lesser captures the roller coaster of emotion that occurs with cancer--the rage, the grief--but ultimately, she settles upon the good that can come with cancer, the surprising treasures. It may seem impossible to believe at certain junctures, but they are, in fact, embedded in the experience.
This book will challenge you and potentially be hard to read at some points, but it ultimately conveys successfully what it means to love--and to lose--in the face of cancer. Lesser somehow locates all the right words that can be put to the cancer journey, words “to carry the thoughts and feelings out of [her]self on a boat of language, and sail them into [our] harbor, where we can commune and experience our differences and our oneness.” Marrow is an honest expression of all that comes with cancer.