Because we have given away so many books while downsizing, I try not to buy any new ones.  When a book review tempts me, I dash to my computer and request it from the library.  I did that twice with Yip-Williams’ book, The Unwinding of the Miracle (I actually did read two reviews) but the second time, the library reminded me that I was already on the waitlist.  (So much for my short-term memory.)

It arrived while I was confined to the sofa by my cold, and Peter retrieved it for me.  I read it in two days.

Yip-Williams received a diagnosis of Stage 4 colon cancer at age thirty-seven.  A Vietnam refugee, she had arrived in California as a small child with only partial vision. Yet she became a successful lawyer, married to the “man of her dreams,” with whom she had two girls. 

The blog that turned into Yip-Williams’ beautifully written description of her four-year “journey” spares no details, and although the book starts with her warning the reader that, “If you are here, then I am not,” you are pulling for the miracle that you know won’t happen.

Julie Yip-Williams died a year ago.