James Forker, the author of the book The End of the Rainbow (Archangel Ink; 2021), was featured on the most recent episode of America Tonight’s “Author’s Corner,” interviewed by Kate Delaney. The interview begins with how he found his wife had cancer, how he kept his family together while faced with the emotional complexities of losing his wife and mother of his children, and the finances that keep the family afloat. He describes how it was just another ordinary day, where people go to work, eat breakfast, drink coffee on breaks, and go home when it’s time to clock out until he receives a phone call from a doctor informing him that his wife has cancer.
“What was it like when all of a sudden you hear the diagnosis of terminal cancer?” Kate asked.
“Well, life was going well as expected. My wife Jen and I had three kids, the oldest from her previous marriage and the other two from our marriage. And you know, we were living our lives, enjoying vacations and doing everything that you do, and raising our children,” James said until he heard the news that he will never forget.
In April of 2017, his wife had been feeling ill for a few months, with typical symptoms such as headaches, back pain, and night sweats. And he assumed it was normal at first because, as he said, “she was a working mom of three children.” Worried, her friend decided to take her to a local ER to see what was wrong with her condition.
When this happened, James was on a plane flying to Logan Airport in Boston when he received a call from a friend who told him that they had taken her wife to the ER and put the doctor on the phone, who told him that she believed her wife had ALL (i.e., acute lymphocytic leukemia).
How did James manage to pull through it all?
After that day, James’ world completely changed. “What was that like? What do you do to help the person you care about the most when you still have young children?” Kate asked.
“Well, there’s no script or playbook for this, right? Nobody gives you a guide that your loved one is diagnosed with cancer, especially when I was 42 at the time, my oldest was 15, and my youngest was 11, so that’s a great question,” James said.
He expressed how for a year and a half, it was just a balance between being at the hospital, where his wife was in the hospital by a lot, and getting home which took about an hour from the hospital in Boston just to be with their kid. Then, she figured out how to continue working to financially provide for everything, such as maintaining health insurance and the treatments she was receiving.
“I don’t know if I ever figured that out, to be honest. I had to take one day at a time,” he added.
How did he move forward from the loss of his wife?
“My wife believed that she was part of the 1%, the 1% who are told that they would not survive, but they do,” James said. “She always held onto that mantra that she was going to be okay no matter what happened.
“It was not even a week before she died that we had that conversation of what was soon to come,” he added, which was difficult for him because if he gave up and succumbed to it, he would be stuck in that thought forever.
James expressed that even if she had passed early and she was just gone, she wouldn’t have that attitude that she would lose the fight, so it was 4 or 5 days that we had that conversation before she passed away.
“What do you hope people take away from reading it?” Kate asked.
“I want people to leave with the idea that when you have the chance, spend as much time as possible with the people you care about and be surrounded by your loved ones to make every minute count,” James said.
“You need to cherish every moment because life is short, and family is everything,” he added.
People should be able to see the memories of the joys they share with their loved ones and not take them for granted because, like him, “you’ll get a phone call and have your world turned upside down, so you need to value the time you have with your loved ones,” James said.
A Remarkably Inspiring Book for People Who Have Lost their Loved ones to Cancer
When most authors write for entertainment, Jame Forker’s new book, The End of the Rainbow, offers hope to those who have lost loved ones to cancer. It has received a five-star rating on Amazon and has been described as “incredibly well-written,” with “deep empathy for the difficulties of dealing with loss of loved ones to cancer.”
If you want to learn more about James Forker’s account of balancing work, family, and preparing for the worst, grab your copy of the book today at Amazon.