Person: Tom Brokaw
Place: South Dakota, New York, the television news anchor’s chair and other worldly locales
Thing: Book-A Lucky Life Interrupted
Idea:  You’ve probably seen the hashtags.  Cancer sucks.  It can upend any life–from the most forward-propelled to the most brackish and stagnant. In the case of legendary former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, his existence-up until his multiple myeloma diagnosis- had been pretty idyllic-with a couple of bumps along the way–namely, early adult life lessons that got him on the right track.
Brokaw’s career path led to one of the most trusted positions in the country… That of network evening news anchor. It’s a position of public trust.  Not exactly the same as  government workers, law enforcement professionals or teachers, but as a nightly cornerstone of the Fourth Estate, it is a position where credibility is of utmost importance.
Then MM wormed its way into his life, and the lives of his family members.  But like a lot of forceful experiences, there can be helpful lessons learned.  Those lessons could possibly translate into advice to pay forward to the next group of everyday people who get to don the unwanted cloak of cancer warrior.  Brokaw also wrote about fellow MM and other cancer sufferers who succumbed to the disease, while weaving in the end days of one of his brothers, whose memories and life were erased… swept away by Alzheimer’s disease.
This, Brokaw’s seventh book, is a memoir of his arduous journey through it all… a rundown of his  daily battle-not against an outside invader-but his body’s reaction against itself.
Yes, he is the main focus of his ups and downs during this time, but readers can get warm and gratitude-filled glimpses into the work, time, care and advocacy “Team Brokaw” pitched in during his trudge toward recovery.  A difficult trek that Brokaw admits isn’t a forever guarantee of wellness henceforth.
Even with 16 months of chemo, powerful pill combinations and other treatments to redirect his body toward normal, this is a gratitude-laced read. Brokaw still maintains his is a lovely life.