Catherine Gigante-Brown

I saw my present mother-in-law in a whole new light the first time she held my newborn son.

I immediately developed a hot-and-heavy girlcrush on the wild, wacky, brash, candid, feminist, rubber-faced comedian—and you should too.

8. Educate, don’t fixate.

Mindel and Maria were young teenagers when the horrors occurred—but they remembered the tiniest details with crystal-clear intensity.

Wrinkles or lifelines? Chunky or curvaceous? The choice is yours.

All bets were off after 9/11. In a twisted way, it proved to me that worry was fruitless. No one ever saw the terrorist attacks coming.

"Sometimes David wore his hair spiked like a cockscomb. Others, he wore it feathery like a baby chick. He wore his Mohawk to summer camp (exchanging encouraging head chucks with another older camper who sported one, too) and even to Vacation Bible School—no judgment there."

My husband and I agreed: raising a child with an independent spirit who made decisions for himself was a good thing.

I go for checkups when I’m supposed to: every three months to the oncologist and every six months to the breast surgeon. I go to SHARE support group meetings to bolster myself. I try to get enough sleep, despite the occasional night spent wide-eyed with dread.

Why, when I'm cool with being a salt-and-pepper chick, does it so clearly unnerve others?