By Anne Ruisi
Kathryn Tortorici and Nancy Bynon’s friendship was forged 18 years ago when the then-Mountain Brook residents worked on a cookbook for the Junior League of Birmingham.
Their bond grew over the years and transformed in 2019 when the women were diagnosed with breast cancer at the same time. The longtime friends have a book about their cancer journey coming out this month, “Two by Two: Conversations Between Friends Navigating Breast Cancer.”
“It was through our friendship and through our relationship of having cancer together that we said, ‘You know, we’ve learned so much from each other. We had to share this with other women’” Tortorici said.
She said their diagnoses came following a casual conversation, when Bynon mentioned she was going to get a mammogram. That prompted Tortorici, who had just moved to Atlanta, to make a doctor’s appointment for her own screening.
“The ultrasound came back, and it wasn’t good,” Tortorici said, adding that Bynon’s test results also came back positive for breast cancer.
Their subsequent conversations as they faced battling cancer ran the gamut: What kind of cancer do you have? What is your treatment? What are you wearing to radiation? What are you having for dinner tonight?
“It was simple things but yet things that carried us as we navigated breast cancer,” Tortorici said
Journaling Everything
One of the strategies they used to cope was journaling.
“We took notes over everything that we did, and we decided that when we first told each other we both had cancer,” Tortorici said, adding the journals included what they were learning about cancer and its effect on everyday aspects of their lives.
“You’d understand something that gave you peace,” she said.
Cooking and healthy food became important, as they learned about which foods could contribute to improving their health, such as those that can help reduce inflammation, a side effect of some medications.
“We would have swelling in our hands and legs. Depending on what we ate would help with a symptom,” she said. “Something as simple as roasted pecans can be healthy and good, better than a cookie.”
These facets of their journey – conversations, journaling, cooking, plus scripture and faith – are integral to “Two by Two.” Each chapter contains a part of their story, a devotion, a key verse and a recipe. At the end of each chapter are key takeaways and blank pages for the reader to write down their thoughts.
Illustrations in the book are of poignant significance as they were drawn by Tortorici’s late mother, writer and artist Barbara Lavallet, who passed away in 2008. Tortorici found one of her mother’s old sketch pads when going through some boxes in her basement. Several of the drawings were of antique keys tied with ribbons. The discovery became the recurring “key” word to highlight the lessons, scripture, recipes and takeaway notes in each chapter.
Tortorici, who now lives in Cahaba Heights with her husband, Sam, and Bynon, who lives in Houston, are in remission but are being treated with hormone blockers to stave off cancer’s return.
“When you deprive your body of hormones, it’s gonna scream. You’re going to have some side effects that aren’t great. And you just have to deal with them,” she said, adding that by next fall, both should be finished with that phase of the treatment.
“Two by Two: Conversations Between Friends Navigating Breast Cancer” will be available online Oct. 24 at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
