Chemo Comics by Pam deGaines |
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Pamelia deGaines, a totally self-taught artist, was the most talented person I ever met. We married in 1971 and spent most of the next nineteen years as proprietors of pottery shops at various locations in Nevada, California, and Oregon. When Pam was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1979, she immediately opted for the recommended radical mastectomy.
Over the next ten years, Pam put up a good fight, doing as the doctors
instructed, reading everything available about her illness, and attending
support-groups as far away as a hundred miles from home.
Chemotherapy treatments commenced in 1986. During that
period Pam continued to work and play as hard as her health would
permit, and she never stopped producing artwork including the drawings
in this book. Appreciating that treating this subject matter in a
light-hearted vein would not appeal to everyone, Pam nevertheless
felt the need to share her feelings and insights in the best way she
could — through her drawings.
Pam died peacefully in 1989, just short of her 50th birthday. Several of her finest art works grace the walls of my home, and they always will.
Sincerely, Ted