is the title and message of Edith Piaf’s famous song. It is one of my musical favorites and also my maxim and yet...
there is one thing I do regret: I regret that it has taken such a long time for the teachings of Messrs. Simonton, Siegel, LeShan, Laskow et al to reach us cancer patients in this part of the globe.
Twenty years or more had elapsed between the time their findings and books were first published and my diagnosis in 1998 : cancer of the breast...
But none of the doctors, be that gynecologist, surgeon, radiologist or tumor specialist, immediately concerned with my case, were ableto kindle a light for me in my darkest hours.
During every minute of those twenty years someone in my country had been confronted with the diagnosis cancer. Ten and a half million cases of unmitigated fear and hopelessness, not counting friends and relatives.
A psychiatrist friend of mine led me to what I call for want of a better expression “The American way of cancer treatment”... and those pioneering doctors whom I had never met, kept vigil at my bedside in the form of their books and helped me to transform my fears into hope.
I have attempted to give a full and true account of this transformation in my book ...”and do whisper to me about life”, so as to start spreading the message of hope... better late than never. I dare say that this endeavor is having success in my country. In deep gratitude I dedicate this self-translated, unpublished “one-off” manuscript of ...”und flüstere mir vom Leben” to those pioneering doctors in the United States of America, who have whispered to me about life.
Annette Rexrodt von Fircks Germany, in the Summer of the year 2005
Mrs. Annette Rexrodt von Fircks, married and mother of three small children, had cancer of the breast in 1998. She was 35 years of age at the time. She lost both her breasts and had to undergo dosage – intensified chemo – and radiation therapies.
Her chances of survival were not rated highly... Whilst undergoing chemotherapy she wrote a letter and sent it to numerous hospitals in Germany as a “message” to both the sick and the healthy. The aim of this letter was to provide “first – aid” comfort to all those feeling utterly helpless in coping with a menacing, life - threatening disease.
Due to the positive response, her letter grew longer and longer as time went by. Now, three years later, it has grown into a book, A BOOK WHICH ENCOURAGES pro-activity in your own convalescence,
A BOOK WHICH ENCOURAGES making medicine your friend, A BOOK WHICH ENCOURAGES taking seemingly hopeless situations as an opportunity for something new, something completely unknown,
... a book for all those wishing to read it.
