At age 44, when Corinne learned that she had a cancer that could kill her, she felt she had lived only half her life. The same was true for Linda, when she got that news at 51.

Each woman had always thought she would live a long, long life. And for good reason. At 87, Corinne's grandmother in Germany was still alive, and walking daily up to her fourth-floor apartment. When Linda got her diagnosis, her mother was 92 and living alone in her own home.

We know that cancer is not personal; it is just a condition of cells dividing rapidly and out of control. (I learned this in the little book, One Renegade Cell: How Cancer Begins by Robert A. Weinberg. If you can handle a measure of challenging technical reading, I highly recommend it.)

Even so, it is easy to see cancer as an evil demon, out to steal a precious life.