I recently reviewed a poignant and touching book entitled “Reconstructing Natalie.” I’m delighted to bring you an interview with the author of that book, Laura Jensen Walker.
Laura, your novel is the story of a young woman who undergoes a double mastectomy for breast cancer. You yourself are a breast cancer survivor. Was writing Natalie’s story difficult for you, or was it theraputic?
Writing Natalie really wasn’t difficult because I’d already written a
non-fiction book about my cancer experience a few years ago called ‘Thanks
for the Mammogram! (Fighting Cancer with Faith, Hope & a Healthy Dose of
Laughter)‘ so I’d already gone through the difficult–and therapeutic–part
when I wrote that.
Natalie is fairly young to have breast cancer. How old were you when you
were diagnosed?
I was thirty-five when I was diagnosed (and married–still am–to an extremely
supportive husband) and I purposely made Natalie twenty-seven and single. I speak about breast cancer to health groups, women’s groups, cancer fundraisers,
etc. around the country and more and more as I spoke, I was meeting young
women in their twenties diagnosed with this difficult disease. Some mentioned
how their husbands or boyfriends left them because they couldn’t handle it,
and I wanted to give voice to these brave young women and to honor them with
Natalie–to show what it’s like to go through this as a single woman, and
the unique challenges they face.
I didn’t realize how much the disease was affecting the younger generation now. Thanks for sharing that.
Natalie relies on her faith to see her though the tough times. How did
faith play a part in your recovery?
Faith, and humor, played a major part in my recovery, just as it did
Natalie’s. I’ll never forget a lonely, terrifying night in the hospital at 3
a.m. after my second chemo treatment when I confronted the very real
possibility that I might die from the cancer. I’d never felt so alone or so
scared. I grabbed my Bible from the hospital nightstand and began
frantically paging through the Psalms, crying out to God, “Help me, Help
me.” And he did. He comforted me with the words of Psalm 18: “The cords of
death entangled me, the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of
the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my
distress, I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help . . . He reached
down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He
rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me.”
I continued reading through the Psalms, and Psalms 142 and 143 also
comforted. As I wrote in Thanks for the Mammogram: “In that moment my fear
was gone and was replaced instead by a wonderful sense of absolute peace. I
knew with a complete, unshakeable assurance that my Lord would rescue me. I
didn’t know how, only that he would. Whether that meant healing me or taking
me home to be with him, I was no longer afraid. For I belonged to the
Lord… Yes, death could claim my cancer-ravaged and chemo-riddled body, but
it could never touch my cancer-free soul. The Lord promised that he would
never leave me or forsake me and he never has…”
That’s beautiful, Laura. Thank you for illustrating how faith can help us through even the darkest trials.
We’ll continue our talk with award-winning novelist Laura Jensen Walker tomorrow. In the meantime, you can visit her at her website, here.
Related Blogs:
Are You Well-Informed about Breast Cancer?
There’s Still Time to Think Pink
How You Can Fight Breast Cancer