This article is a sidebar to "Meeting of the minds," an article describing Ruth Bachman's sarcoma diagnosis and treatment by Cancer Center physician-researchers.

Ruth Bachman has a decidedly philosophical and upbeat approach to life. She has adjusted to life without her left hand and has days that she calls her "grief days." Since the surgery to amputate her hand, she has become able to enjoy almost everything she did before "except braid hair."

Bachman says, "I sometimes wonder 'Why me?' I ate right, did yoga, volunteered in the community, went to church..." But then she quotes Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, "Expecting that bad things won't happen to you is like expecting a bull not to charge because you're a vegetarian!" (In Shadow and Light, Looking for the Gifts of Cancer, 2003 by Connie Z. Reider)

She believes in "not living the cancer life," but she does want to acknowledge the fact that she's an amputee and a cancer survivor. It's part of her life now, not something to mask or ignore. She's an ardent supporter of the Cancer Center and is full of praise for the people there who helped her. And, she has taken up speaking on behalf of the Cancer Center, telling her story to inspire others confronting cancer and to encourage people to support the Cancer Center's work.

"I use the image of the hourglass," she says. "Cancer is the narrow spot in the glass and I am the sand. You never know when your hourglass is going to get tipped. After passing through a difficult narrow place, you emerge as the same sand, but in a different arrangement. You are more authentically who you really are."

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This article was originally published in the University of Minnesota Cancer Center 2006 Annual Report (PDF).