John
A Journey Back
by
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John’s journey began on October 16, 2008 when he immerged from the examination room and in a somewhat frantic gesture for a teenager waved for his mom to come quickly. The physician’s assistant met her at the door and quickly affirmed that John did in deed have bronchitis. She also stated that there were other issues of more immediate concern. His journey would involve many, impact many, and leave few who know John unaffected. It would be a journey that would provoke a new found sense of family, friendships and caring. The focal point would not center on our shattered comfort zone of twenty-two years, but rather what had displaced it. We had no road map, no compass to steer by. This was a world of unknowns that would come at us with breakneck speed, posing a lifetime of questions in a time span that was not of our choosing. The notion that “bad things happen to good people” was squarely there for us to confront. The reality of the moment was brought home as forceful as if having been squarely punched in the stomach, and then punched again, and again. The times would test us more than any challenge we faced thus far. They would test our parenting skills, our faith, and our abilities to cope with something that until now only happened to other people. For John it would be a test of physical endurance and mental intrigue that would move him from one challenge to the next, willed on by his human spirit. For all of us, the journey back had begun.
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About the Book
John Mallory was seventeen years old. For all that was thrown at him in his daily battle to please peers, parents, and teachers, life was not so bad. Except, of course, for that lingering cough and dragged out feeling that seemed to linger. But cancer? The mere thought of it, along with the sudden coming to terms with ones’ own mortality, forced his family to re-examine their lives in an effort to understand where this latest journey would take them.
Kevin Mallory and his wife Nancy live in Portland, Maine with their son John. They have been married for twenty-two years. As middle class Americans whose priorities included steering down the road to retirement and wondering how to pay for college, they were blindsided by the events this narrative hopes to put into perspective. What started out as note taking for reference when talking to doctors, soon evolved into personal comments, unfolding feelings, and eventually thoughts of writing a book.
This no-holds-barred look at family life under the gun doesn’t try to break new ground; rather it chooses to examine the overwhelming issues facing an American teenage cancer patient through the eyes of his parents.
About the Author
Kevin Mallory and his wife Nancy live in Portland, Maine with their son John. Nancy is employed by county government and Kevin works for the local school system. They believe that if any of their neighbors or friends benefit from this book it will have been well worth the effort.