Very clearly, in memory, I see the girl I was at fourteen, beautiful and determined, leaving the blue house where she had grown up.

I see myself in the back of a truck, perched atop a pile of cordwood. The two men inside the truck, transporting the wood to be sold in a distant village, show no concern for any danger I might face traveling over bumpy roads balanced on those heavy logs. As we head down the long driveway, the girl I was looks back at her home for the last time.

Myrna Porter was born in Wynyard, Saskatchewan, the sixth child of a family of sixteen. Her father, Cecil Denham, moved the family north to an isolated area of Saskatchewan when Myrna was two or three years old. Myrna's father had an entrepreneurial spirit and dreamed of owning a farm. Cecil purchased land from a homesteader, where he built the blue house. The expectation was that the land would be cleared for farming, but conditions were harsh in the area-summers were short, and winters were long and brutally cold-and the equipment necessary to clear the land was not yet available. Her family scraped by on her father's woodcutting ventures.Myrna left home at fourteen, stepping into a life that would carry her far from her humble and challenging beginnings in Saskatchewan. Though she and her siblings attended grammar school in very meager facilities, studying under teachers who were not highly educated, Myrna went on not only to graduate from high school but also to earn both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree. In no small part, her several years as a flight attendant for United Air Lines prior to her college education opened her world far beyond the confines of the blue house and the struggles of her childhood.While working for United Air Lines, Myrna met and married Stuart W. Porter, then bowed out of her flight attendant work to focus on raising a family. Once their two sons began to attend school, she entered college, obtaining a nursing degree and, later, a master's in social work. Myrna spent most of her professional life in private practice counseling those with psychological and social issues, including clients who struggled with eating disorders.Her firsthand experiences with cancer-her own bout with breast cancer and her husband's death from prostate cancer-inspired her to help those in similar circumstances. She cofounded Wellness Place, a support center for cancer patients and their families, and established the first prostate walk in the state of Illinois.Myrna currently lives in Illinois in the summer and California in the winter. One of her interests during retirement is children; she is a mentor and supporter of the KARE program at Palm Desert Charter Middle School, where her co-author, Dr. Jacob Shefa, serves as director. Myrna remains close to her family-her sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, and many surviving siblings. Though spread across both the United States and Canada, she holds them all tenderly in her heart.