Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma in the News

I found Huston Diehl's obituary this weekend while searching for news on ACC/AdCC. She died this past week from the disease, after being first diagnosed in 1998. As a professor at the University of Iowa, she was a prolific author, and great mentor of others. Here is a link in Worldcat for her name (some materials may possibly be attributable to another author with a similar name, but most are hers or reviews of her work): http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au:huston+diehl&qt=advanced&dblist=638 . They had a symposium in May to honor her - how cool is that, I had no idea that such things took place in academia:
http://www.english.uiowa.edu/includes/documents/diehlsymposium5_2010.pdf

This announcement about the symposium links to the English Department's Facebook page photo albums to show the activities and smiles the days brought: http://www.english.uiowa.edu/news/2010/05_06.shtml

Here is the link to her obituary in the Press-Citizen newspaper: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100910/NEWS02/9100312/Huston-Diehl-61. And here is the link to the funeral home's condolence page: http://www.funeralquestions.com/obits/lensing/memorial.asp?listing_id=160923 . Memorials are requested for a scholarship fund - what a wonderful way to memorialize her work.

Someone asked me why I include obituaries on this blog. My main reason is to pass on history of who has shared this path, as individual as it is for most of us. The other reason is to show that life doesn't end with a cancer diagnosis - no matter how short or long the time someone has after being diagnosed, important things take place, opportunities and successes happen, and most are mentioned in obituaries. You can't read Dr. Diehl's obituary without feeling her passion for education and the students that she dedicated her life towards, even after ACC showed up.

These postings are not to bring down my readers - they are intended to lift us up, to say there is a tomorrow and something wonderful and meaningful can still take place even though we are walking around with a confining garment called cancer. And remember - I write for the future Cheeky Librarian, so some middle of the night-o dark thirty moment, I can read this post and remember to hang around another day, just to see what is coming next.