Special Review: Choosing to Smile by Julie Houlker, Glenda Standeven and Michelle Rickaby

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This is a book containing the autobiographical stories of three local women who survived cancer and met each other because of it. It's much more than a collection of survivor stories, though. It's a celebration of the wholeness of life.

Each author starts at the beginning; with her childhood and the people, places and events that helped to shape her into the resilient, good humoured, generous woman she would ultimately become. We laugh along with some of their antics during their teens and early twenties. We watch as they begin to pursue career paths, cheering for them as their struggles to find their own purpose begin to take shape. We see them fall in love, sometimes more than once. Along the way we meet the men they marry and the children they give birth to. At times we are moved by the depths of love and courage their partners display.

The common theme running through these individual accounts is that the women didn't let cancer define and rule their lives. But these aren't just three 'brag letters', not everything went right. There was a divorce, significant financial stress and even survivor guilt while they watched some of their loved ones perish from the disease that they were struggling to recover from. Not everyone in their lives was able to be the supportive person the authors needed them to be. The fear and suffering and times of isolation came close to utter desperation at times.

Their determination to live and love their lives is the celebration. We are defined by how we respond to joy. Houlker, Standeven and Rickaby are well defined.

Meet the authors inside Abbotsford's Hemingway's Bookstore for a signing from 1-4 pm this Saturday, May 15.