Gretchen Hunsberger was first diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer in 2013, which she successfully treated with radiation and chemotherapy. But fourteen months later in spring 2015, her remission ended when the cancer returned, this time at stage 4.

In June 2015, Gretchen shared her courageous story about deciding to forgo medical treatment and embrace her impending death. Gretchen realized the unparalleled value of community, and how much can be learned from individuals living in Stage 4. She mourned the loss of her vitality, but through mindfulness and meditation practices, experienced joy in the wonders of this world.

Gretchen passed away on August 31, 2015.

Resources:

To learn more about pancreatic cancer, ways to get involved, and sources of support, visit Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

For inspiration on navigating cancer, explore Bernie Siegel and Mark Nepo's writing.

At the age of 17 at an all-male boarding school in Virginia, Jenks developed what would grow into a life-threatening eating disorder. It began with over-exercising, and quickly spiraled into bulimia, stimulant abuse, and drug and alcohol addiction.

Over the following ten years, the eating disorder ruled Jenks’s life and took uncountable things away from him. He hid his disorder for years, ashamed to tell friends and family that he was struggling with what was considered by many to be a “women’s disease.” It did not help that he did not know any males with eating issues to whom he could turn for advice.

Eventually, Jenks opened up to his family about his co-occurring issues with alcohol, drugs, and food. Hospitalizations and treatment programs helped him address his substance addiction first, but in the absence of those behaviors the eating disorder surged. He realized his pattern of trying to fill the void he felt inside with whatever was at hand: drugs, alcohol, relationships, exercise, or food.

Now 31 and in solid recovery, Jenks discusses the mixed feelings he had for years about letting go of his eating disorder: part of him wanted freedom, but another part was unwilling to give up the rituals. When Jenks began his journey towards recovery in earnest, at a treatment center called A New Journey in Santa Monica, California, it was not without stumbles.

From these experiences, Jenks realized his passion for service. He describes how his recovery is based in giving back to others who are themselves recovering from alcohol and drug addiction and eating disorders. One of Jenks’s primary missions is to encourage men to engage in open conversations about their struggles with food, which he believes is the essential first step to healing.

Originally from Rock Hill, South Carolina, Jenks currently resides in Venice, California where he works as a House Manager in a sober living house for men.

I’m a photographer and multidisciplinary artist whose work centers around the idea that sharing stories and making art about potentially isolating experiences can help make those experiences less lonely. I map experiences that many of us share, but don’t always talk about.

I’m currently working on an evolving art project about bereavement called Grief Landscapes, in which I’m documenting the wide variety of ways that people respond to loss. First, I’m inviting people to answer a series of questions about how they grieved after someone’s death. I'm then photographing, in extreme close-up, something that evokes the memory of the person who died, transforming it into an abstract landscape inspired by the person’s grief story.

Grief is often described as a journey, but it’s an intensely individual and often isolating one: rarely do people speak openly about the range of ways of grieving, and there seem to be many misconceptions about the grief process. I’m using the project to examine a number of questions about grief and bereavement: What does it look like? How do people navigate it differently? How does grief change us? Grief Landscapes documents grief not as a prescribed set of steps or timelines but as a place where there are no right answers, just an exploration of new territory.

You can live anywhere in the world to participate in Grief Landscapes, and I’m looking for contributors of all ages and backgrounds, with different relationships to the deceased, and different lengths of time since the loss. To view the project so far and submit your story, go to grieflandscapes.com.

Grief Landscapes is supported by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council.

Mindy Stricke is a multidisciplinary artist creating photographs, interactive installations, conversations and collaborations. Her work has been awarded grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, exhibited throughout North America, and has appeared in international publications including The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and the Smithsonian Institute Photography Initiative’s book and online exhibit, Click! Photography Changes Everything. Originally from New York, she now lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.