Biography & Autobiography Personal Memoirs
Eighteen Months: A Love Story Interrupted
- Publisher
- Baronel Books
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2017
- Category
- Personal Memoirs
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781547200672
- Publish Date
- Jun 2017
- List Price
- $15.00
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Now into its third edition: EIGHTEEN MONTHS- A LOVE STORY INTERRUPTED is not a work of fiction. The characters are based on real people and the content is true to its original intentions. It is about the life of two Canadians, Sharon and Charlie, who knew each other for just a mere eighteen months. Together they travel on a daunting journey. It is a story of humour, compassion, fear, support, love, anger and utter frustration, culminating in death and many unanswered questions. It is also a story of a human relationship that testifies to the strength and will of both the terminally ill patient and her partner as he comes to accept her illness and the short period of time they will spend together. Much has been written for women by women on the subject of breast cancer. This story is written from a man’s perspective, of the author's fleeting relationship, with his partner.
About the author
Contributor Notes
Author | Writer | Social Advocate | Public Speaker
Simons is an author, writer and social advocate. He writes on issues relating to intolerance, hate, antisemitism, Islamophobia, conflict, and terrorism, as well as publishes two online news site. As a diplomat, he served as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Rwanda to Canada, post-genocide era. He has lectured and designed courses in the areas of therapeutic management, religion in politics, and communications. He recently published his sixth book.
Excerpt: Eighteen Months: A Love Story Interrupted (by (author) A.L. Simons)
Not for the faint-hearted
My life changed from the very first moment I set eyes on Sharon. Her distinctive smile, combined with her laugh and penetrating eyes always looking and observing at her surroundings as she enquired about the simplest detail that some people would have assumed as being utterly naïve. Yet, naïve she wasn’t. For in her early forties she had acquired an intense passion to learn and educate herself, which was cut short by her death by the time she attained the age of forty-seven years. Her cancer had spread to her bones, liver and lungs three years after she had been diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer. Sharon was well versed in all components of the disease. Two of her aunts had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother had a history of benign breast lumps and there's a history of cancer in a grandmother's siblings and their children. Sharon's father died of pancreatic cancer. It's been written that when a person dies, his or her spirit lives in those who remember. Our tradition is very specific in providing us with ways of remembering our loved ones. In addition, our tradition does not allow us to forget those who have died. Finding an appropriate way of honouring and remembering the dead is one of the goals of the mourning process. A great rabbi said: “Once I was on a journey and I encountered a man. We greeted one another. Then he said to me, “Rabbi, where are you from?” I replied to him: “I come from a great city of sages and scribes.” He then said: “Rabbi, if you are willing to dwell in our place, I will give you a thousand gold dinars and gems and pearls.” I replied to him: “Were you to give me all the world's silver and gold and gems and pearls, I would not live save in a place of our Torah.” As David King of Israel wrote in the book of Psalms: “Your Torah is better to me than thousands of gold and silver. Moreover, when we die it is neither silver nor gold nor gems nor pearls that accompany us, but Torah and good deeds only.” How much is a life worth and who is to say what term is to be put on a life? All I know is that my life with my Sharon spanned just eighteen months. I have no desire to battle David King of Israel, but I would gladly have given silver or gold or gems or pearls for the opportunity to have spent more time with her. About a year before Sharon died, we attended a funeral service for the daughter of a friend who had died in an accident. Knowing how much physical pain Sharon was experiencing at the time, I asked her why she felt compelled to attend the service. She looked at me and said: “Charlie, I have to know what to expect when my time comes.” I should have known better than to ask such a question.
Editorial Reviews
“Mr Simons has captured as few authors can the pathos and enduring symmetry of timeless love unfettered by space and time!”
“A must-read, an uplifting read, a poignant pastiche of the transcendental nature of what true love promises in both a temporal and all enduring sense.”
"A.L.Simons has shared his personal saga of triumph and tragedy in this memoir. From a man's viewpoint, we see the effects of cancer on the individuals as well as the relationship. It is a touching and moving story that leaves the reader wondering about the author because just as their love is interrupted, so the story ends. The characters in the memoir are beautifully developed and we feel the loss because Simons has allowed us a complete view of their short but powerful love."
"Very good…This is a compelling true story of two extraordinary adult single parents who fall in love and soon after sharing in the battle of their lives. It is a story of devotion, comfort and strength that will touch your heart. A must read!"
"Just wanted to recommend a powerful book...Eighteen Months- A Love Story Interrupted by A.L.Simons. It is the true story of divorced single parents who fall in love and soon after are thrust into the battle against metastatic breast cancer. It is a story of comfort, strength, humour and compassion that will touch your heart!"