Susan G. Komen For The Cure Miami/Ft. Lauderdale Sponsor

When teacher-turned-author Miriam Rutland was diagnosed with breast cancer, it came as a serious blow. Not only because she knew she would be starting the fight of her life, literally, but because the thing she loved to do most—teach—might be compromised by the aggressive treatment. The months of radiation treatment and aggressive surgeries to save her life essentially sapped Rutland of nearly all her energy. But, after seeing her own mother battle the same kind cancer, she was determined to survive for the sake of her loved ones, students included. At the urging of her doctor, Rutland underwent a double mastectomy, reconstructive surgery, as well as a hysterectomy.

And yet, ironically, it was her fight with cancer and her dramatic recovery that gave Rutland the strength to write the children’s book she had been carefully crafting in her mind for years, Miss Pistachio’s Big Day.