Standing at Water’s Edge

Janice Post-White was an oncology nurse who thought she knew what life with cancer was about—until her four-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia. While he drew pictures to process his emotions, she buried her feelings and threw herself into managing a dual role as a medical professional and mother. Her memoir shares her son’s perspective as a young cancer patient and teen survivor, and explores her own personal and professional insights on survivorship, resilience, healing and what facing death can teach us about living.

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Meet Janice

As a PhD trained nurse, researcher, educator, and writer, Janice Post-White has four decades of experience in cancer, psychoneuroimmunology, and complementary medicine and integrative cancer care. She studies how the mind communicates with the body and writes about resiliency in illness from personal and professional experience. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Lana’i, Hawaii.

Book Resources

Fig 1. Ch. 6 -The First Week. Brennan’s house on day 1, with a little yellow bird trapped in the roof and spears to warn others to stay away.

Fig 2. Ch. 6 – The First Week. Brennan’s house on day 3, with a window as entrance and toys and lights to look pretty for Mom.

Fig 3. Ch. 7 – Finding Our Way. Brennan drew a candle for a head so the headless horseman could find his way.

Fig 4. Ch. 8 – New Identities, New Perspectives. Brennan’s drawing of his family from a 4-year old’s perspective.

Fig 5. Ch.10 – Surviving. Brennan’s bones included a heart and brain – all were vital to life.

Fig 6. Ch. 11 – I Just Want to Live in the Moment. Brennan’s first sailboat sailing alone.

Fig 7. Ch. 13 – Who Is This Child. Brennan (5) and Tyler (2) during delayed intensification #1, summer of 1997.

Fig 8. Ch. 14 – Finding Normal. Brennan’s flower, folded like a fan, growing tall and flourishing despite the chaos around it.

Fig 9. Ch. 15 – Sailing Forward. Brennan’s red sun rising, a yellow shadow marking its ascent.

Fig 10. Ch. 15 – Sailing Forward. Brennan’s sailboat sailing through storms and sun.

Fig 11. Ch. 15 – Sailing Forward. Brennan’s lighthouse guides his sailboat forward.

Fig 12. Ch. 17 – Always On Call. Author and Brennan on stage at the Oncology Nursing Society in San Francisco, May 1998.

Fig 13. Ch. 21 – Celebrate. Brennan leads the survivors’ walk at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Olivia, MN. June 2000

Fig 14. Ch. 24 – Hawaii as Refuge. Janice, Tyler, Duane, and Brennan celebrate off treatment in Hawaii.

Fig 15. Ch. 24 – Hawaii as Refuge. Spinner dolphins swim with the author, Lana’i, Hawaii.

Swimming with the spinner dolphins, Lana’i, Hawaii.

Book signing: Kate St Vincent Vogl (author, Lost & Found), Brennan (leukemia survivor), and Janice (author, Standing at Water’s Edge). Magers & Quinn, Minneapolis, MN. January 5, 2022 (3 min clip)

“In Standing at Waters Edge, Dr. Janice Post-White, a cancer health-care specialist herself, generously and colorfully takes us into the world of a family confronted by childhood cancer…. Life and its seasons do not stop for childhood cancer, and her words teach us how overwhelming the aloneness can be for a family and for each of its members that is evoked by threats to their wellbeing and survival…. She teaches us how our words, touch, and presence can make the cancer experience better for our very ill children and their families. This book is our guide and will take us as close to the family pediatric cancer experience as we shall be able to get.”

—Pamela Hinds, William and Joanne Conway Chair of Nursing Research at Children’s National, pediatrics professor at George Washington University in Washington DC

“What a beautiful, poetic and honest account of a parent’s greatest fear—facing the loss of a child to a serious illness. This book will move you, enlighten you, and ultimately inspire you. For what is a brush with death, if not a deeper call to life?”

—Henry Emmons, MD, author of The Chemistry of Joy and The Chemistry of Calm