Melanie Lindholm Publishing
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Melanie Lindholm Publishing
A Memoir About Love and Death in Alaska
by Melanie M. Lindholm
What if the person you loved most was forced to endure inhumane suffering? At forty-two, Andrea was diagnosed with terminal cancer. With her plan to seek Death With Dignity when she could no longer fight the disease, Andrea fought for nearly three years through 52 rounds of chemo. Trapped in Alaska by COVID-19 in mid-2020, Andrea’s plan to legally end her suffering humanely evaporated. Forced to witness her suffering within the U.S. healthcare system’s lack of choices for terminal patients, her wife, Melanie, chose love over law in honoring Andrea’s wishes. Andrea’s Story is a case study, of sorts, with the goal of championing legislation for both Universal Healthcare and Universal Medical Aid in Dying. By sharing her experience with the world, Melanie hopes to prevent other people from being forced to repeat Andrea’s experience. Ultimately, Andrea’s Story is a plea for more humane and compassionate options.
Advocate for compassionate options
Melanie M. Lindholm is known in Alaska as a graduate student turned adjunct professor and an ex-Mormon turned belly dancer. After her life was upended by the cancer and death of her soulmate, Melanie left academia and started a new life in Canada. Melanie's most recent book spans a 7-year journey, from her wife's diagnosis in Alaska to her own cancer experience in Canada. "Andrea's Story: A Memoir About Love and Death in Alaska" explains the brutal details of Andrea's experience with cancer and chemo in the US healthcare system. By contrast, Melanie's experience with cancer in Canada could NOT have been more opposite. Prior publications: Melanie's first publication in 2007 titled “Why I Left” outlines her reasons for leaving the LDS faith and coincidentally became her writing sample for applying to graduate school in Arctic and Northern Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2012. Her 2014 master’s thesis "Alaska Native Perceptions of Food, Health, and Community Well-Being: Challenging Nutritional Colonialism" became the basis for her third publication, a chapter of the same title for the 2019 anthology “Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge Protecting Environments and Regaining Health.” All of Melanie's books can be ordered or downloaded for free on her website: https://melanielindholm.com/