Title: Cancer Taught Me: A Memoir of Experience, Strength, and Hope by Angela Roloson

Publisher / Publication date: Angela M. Roloson (March 17, 2025)

Language: English

Format / # of Pages: softcover, e-book / 171 pages

Large type / large print edition: 182 pages

Genre: Memoir

ISBN-13: ‎979-8992621303

Reviewed by: Doris Green

*****

Curriculum for Hope

At first glance, Cancer Taught Me might seem intended only for folks with a recent cancer diagnosis, or maybe also for their families and friends. Not true. Author Angela Roloson has written a compelling message of hope for any reader enduring physical or emotional trauma.

Cancer Taught Me is a message of insight gained from facing up to pain, uncertainty, and loss. As if cancer (and a double mastectomy) were not enough, Roloson also details her recovery from alcoholism and the ending of a relationship at a crucial time. She endured a year of surgery and other cancer treatment while continuing to parent her own children and teach high school English. Her book brings the wisdom of experience to readers still enmeshed in their own traumas.

Roloson’s willingness to share her story with others follows from a career of teaching high school students and a hope that the lessons she gained during a tough period of her life can also teach. Chapter titles reflect this study guide. Titles like “People Are Good—Even Teenagers,” “Fear Is Sometimes Worse Than Reality,” and “There’s No Shame in Accepting Help” illuminate lessons learned the only way hard truths are ever learned, through experience.

During her year of cancer treatment, Roloson’s high school students learned more than their English curriculum requirements. They learned, she wrote at the end of chapter 27: “how to climb mountains that seem insurmountable, how to keep going when your tank is empty, and how to refuse to lie down and give up.”

Now, Roloson’s lucky readers can also find wisdom and hope for their own most challenging journeys.