What Illness Taught Me About Food, Love, and Why Policy Must Protect Our Most Vulnerable

What Illness Taught Me About Food, Love, and Why Policy Must Protect Our Most Vulnerable

Seventeen years ago, I lost my husband, Rand, to pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed on my 30th birthday, and just four months later, he was gone. In that short and brutal period, I came to know what it means to watch the love of your life fight to survive. I learned what it feels like to be completely undone — devastated by the diagnosis, worn down by the health care system, and desperate for something, anything, that might help. I didn’t cook,…