Modern Love The Podcast is supported by

Produced by the I-Lab at WBUR Boston.

From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Loss and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

Sometimes we're lucky enough to stumble into fleeting friendships in unexpected places,

but those can be the people who pull you through.

Sally Hoskins writes about one of those moments in her essay,

The Kindness and Xanax of Strangers.

It's read by Leslie Manville,

Leslie Stars in the New Movie, Ordinary Love.

There is no more cliché time to get a diagnosis of breast cancer

than national breast cancer awareness month.

The 31 days of October, when you can't make a move without seeing a pink ribbon,

either the genuine article or its likeness in frosting or smoke salmon.

My diagnosis was particularly poorly timed,

given that I had just written about having put my previous bout with breast cancer 15 years earlier, behind me.

But at my annual mammogram two months before,

it was deja vu all over the X-ray screen.

I had a fresh case in my previously unscathed breast.

The newer currents was local, meaning no multiple surgeries, no chemotherapy.

This time, I had the very best form of breast cancer.

...