‘Life is Real – Writing the Final Chapters’ series continues with blogs from Jim Chastain and Charlotte Lankard
A couple of weeks ago, The Oklahoman ran its final chapters of the “Jim Chastain: Life is Real” series.
The good news is that the series ends with Jim continuing the fight and living with cancer. And our page on NewsOK, complete with Jim’s blog will continue on.
Reporter Ken Raymond shared his thoughts with a story that ran in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK:
After the last chapter that I wrote, the Chastains decided they didn’t want to subject themselves to that scrutiny anymore. The last story talked about displaced anger. When people are upset about something they can’t control, such as a dying spouse or father, they tend to direct their anger and helplessness at other targets, ones that are easier to hit. It happened in my family twice: first when my Dad died of pancreatic cancer and second when my Mom died, years later, of breast and lung cancer. It didn’t do any good to yell at the cancer, so we yelled at each other.
It’s true stuff. It’s real. But it’s not very pretty.
Our columnist Charlotte Lankard, who is also a close friend of Jim’s, shared her thoughts in our final chapter as well:
None of us should be surprised then that Jim’s family has found living in a fish bowl for the entire world to see uncomfortable, unsettling and invasive. They have made a significant contribution to this dialogue, but now they have asked to pull back a bit from the spotlight – and we will honor that.
Charlotte will also continue blogging as the series goes on.
You can read the blogs and share your thoughts with each of them. Ken’s blog will continue to be archived on the page, as will the previous chapters and the videos from videographer/photgrapher John Clanton.
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[...] Web site about his life and his battle with cancer. We aren’t writing stories anymore (as I described in a previous post), but we are still very much interested in his “Life is Real” blog — and [...]