My Mother's Journey with Cancer

My mother, Dr. Saroj Ram, passed away on November 20, 2014 at the age of 84, after a seven-year struggle with breast cancer. As an avid poet, she shared her unique perspective on her life and journey with cancer in a collection of poems. She wrote from her vantage point as a physician, spouse, mother, grandmother, and a deeply spiritual person. This is the story of my journey with my mother through her terminal illness. It tries to capture the incredible courage and faith by which she accepted her fate. In her writing and in mine, I hope our experience rings true for others and provides some comfort. Too many of our loved ones have had to walk this devastating path. Sonia Anand

Dr. Sonia Anand pays tribute to her mother, Dr. Saroj D. Ram who wrote this beautiful collection of poems during her final battle with cancer. Heartwarming, poignant.

Saroj Daulat ram was born on May 6, 1930, in Jandiala Guru, Punjab, India. Her mother died when she was a year old, and Saroj was raised by her grandmother. In 1939, Saroj moved to East Africa to be with her father and new step-mother. In 1947, she moved to Nairobi to begin senior Cambridge schooling. She finished first in class, and although her father thought it was time for her to get married, he gave in to her wish to go to medical school instead. She attended medical school in Mysore, India and then continued on to the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. In her final year of education in Dublin, Saroj met a dynamic moral re-armament speaker, Dr. Sundaram Vivek Anand, a true believer in Gandhi's principles. She thought Anand to be a kind and intelligent young doctor. Soon after, on the 24th of October 1960, Saroj Ram and S.V. Anand were married in London. The happily married couple set out for Ibadan, Nigeria, where Saroj received a job in the pediatric emergency room, and Anand worked as a surgeon. Here, she frequently saw patients suffering from typhoid, tetanus, and malaria; the neonatal mortality rate in Nigeria at that time was 50 percent, and thus she was very grateful her first pregnancy went smoothly without her being afflicted by similar diseases. It was a difficult job. In 1961, their first daughter Gitanjali was born in Nigeria, and in 1965, Saroj and Anand courageously moved to Kentville, Nova Scotia in Canada, where medical doctors were needed at the time. Saroj and Anand worked at the Blanchard Fraser Memorial (BFM) Hospital, Saroj in anesthesia and Anand in surgery. In 1967, their second daughter Anita Indira Anand was born, followed soon after by daughter Sonia Savitri Anand. Gita, Anita, and Sonia attended King's County Academy in Kentville and grew up happily; the family integrated well into the smalltown East coast lifestyle. In 1985, after 20 years in Kentville, Anand and Saroj moved to Napanee, Ontario, where Anand worked as a surgeon. Saroj started a residency program in psychiatry at the Kingston General Hospital, and then returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia alone to start up a counseling practice. While living there, she was diagnosed with cancer, so she closed her practice, and moved back to Napanee. Saroj and Anand moved to Georgetown, Ontario in 1995, where Saroj retired and Anand continued to work as a surgeon. Saroj had a great interest in poetry and created a women's poetry group in Georgetown, which met once a month. She was an active member of the University Women's Club of Georgetown. As a mother and grandmother, she was very present and devoted to family life. Her three daughters and grandchildren lived fairly close to her home and visited her often. Dr. Sonia Anand is Dr. Saroj Ram's youngest daughter and is also a physician by profession. Sonia trained in medicine at McMaster University. She completed a vascular medicine fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, United States, and her Master's and PhD degree in research methods at McMaster University. Today she is a Professor of Medicine and researcher at McMaster University. Dr. Anand holds a Canada Research Chair in Ethnic Diversity and Cardiovascular Disease; and the Heart and Stroke Foundation Michael G DeGroote Chair in Population Health. In 2019, Dr. Anand was inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Anand lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with her husband and three children.

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