PHOTO: Anne's older sister, Dorothy turns 90. She was the main historian for this project. Bettina Haskins is holding the cake.
Forty-two years ago my mother, Anne Rand, passed away at the age of thirty-nine from a complicated bone marrow transplant. She had been battling cancer for thirteen years. I ended up writing a memoir focused mainly on the last four years of her life. For me, her story is about quiet courage and how ordinary people are capable of doing extraordinary things while facing insurmountable obstacles, such as their own mortality.
It was amazing to capture all of the stories about my mother and her family. My Aunt Joy helped a great deal with this project too. She provided intimate details, things a young boy would never have known. My cousins—Casey, Jane, and Patti—filled in some of the blanks and history of my mother as a teenager and the nuances of her health toward the end of her life. I am immensely grateful for all of their time, energy, and input into this project. Truly a labor of love.