About
My name is Kim Yaris. On September 28, 2017, my life was upended with a diagnosis of stage 3, HER 2 positive breast cancer. If you’ve never experienced having to share bad news about your health with people who love you, it is as hard as you imagine. Scared and freaked out by your own uncertainties, you have to watch the people who you love–and who love you–manage their heartbreak and grief. It was in one of these very hard conversations that silver linings bubbled to the surface. As I sat across from my father-in-law who was devastated and struggling to process the news, I took his hand and said, “I promise you, Harvey, when this over, I will be able to find fifty silver linings in this experience.”
How I had the insight to see beyond the immediate gravity of that situation, I will never know. But, those words were formative and pivotal. It was at that moment that I knew how I was going to get through that ordeal—by working to see things differently.
For me, writing has always been cathartic and helps me to process the things I find hard to understand or want to understand better. For this reason, shortly after my diagnosis, I began chronicling my journey on Caring Bridge. Still in the raw, uncertain phases of the journey, I set this up to be a private forum for me to share with my closest friends and family. I committed to writing candidly and was overwhelmed by the response I got. People wrote to me privately to express how my posts affected them and encouraged me to go public with my message. I was resistant, but my husband saw the potential and began to build this website for “whenever I might be ready.”
Four months from the day of my diagnosis was the time that I was ready. I decided to publicly share my breast cancer story in the hopes that it would help someone else. However, when treatment ended, I was eager to leave breast cancer–and this blog–behind.
But now, amidst the worldwide Coronavirus Pandemic, I find myself back here. Once again, I am wrestling with things I find hard to understand and there are things that I want to understand better. It is my hope that through writing, I can work to process the incomprehensible. Writing helped me to see breast cancer differently and I am hoping that it can help me–and maybe even you–see this differently, too.
Contact Me
516.986.7323
West Palm Beach, Fl 33411