“Your future is not set in stone”: The Unwinding of the Miracle

“The truth being that I have cancer and the inevitability being that I will eventually die from that cancer.”

The Unwinding Of The Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death and Everything That Comes After is a memoir of Julie Yip-Williams a Chinese American born partially blind diagnosed with colon cancer in her late 30s and writes this journey of her living through this disease, her treatments, her inner struggles with herself and the people around her.

“No one says that guilt is rational.”

Julie takes us to places where we, who are not dealing with cancer or terminal illness of any kind, see through this memoir what really happens with the person. The book takes you to dark places and is an eye opener for every reader and really makes you think what turmoil Julie went through ever since her diagnosis.

“Our best humanity means being able to control our baser instincts to squelch the panic and fear to overcome with reason and intellect and compassion and honesty and faith and love.”

Williams is survived by her 2 daughters and husband Josh Williams. She takes us through her relationship with her family, her parents and what it was like living in USA as a  Chinese American and relives the stark memories she had of her immigration to the American land and learning about her family and it’s hidden secrets during the treatment. She felt she was betrayed by her own but instead chose to be at peace in spite of knowing what had happened in the past.

“You should focus on how far you have come in your life. Be happy about that. Something that some people don’t realize is that the lines on a person’s palm can change and do change all the time. Your future is not set in stone.”

Julie Yip-Williams was who we would call a realist and she takes us through various lenses in her life and gives us a very very important message — that life is unpredictable. We don’t know what is going to happen. We don’t know what a person with terminal illness goes through and how it affects people around the person. The author talks without any filters and makes it very clear to us that, yes, she is going to die.

I have personally never felt more connected to a person before. You feel sometimes you know what cancer does to a person, a family, but really we have no idea and can only make guesses. The book made me assume from its title that Julie gets to live but I was definitely wrong and when she talks about the miracle I had tears in my eyes.

The Unwinding of the Miracle is a must read and though you are reading about a stranger, Julie opens out her heart and you feel a lot closer to her as a reader than you ever did to someone you knew.

(Article submitted by Sukaina, *Night Reader*. Follow her on Instagram @thenightreader.28)