A biography for Regina Bretthasn’t been written yet.
“Cancer is a great wake-up call. A call to take the tag off the new lingerie and wear that black lacy slip. To open the box of pearls and put them on. To crack open the bath oil beads before they shrivel up in a bowl on the toilet tank.”
“I like that they call it an airplane cabin. A cabin is where you go to get away from stress. The cabin is a respite from the terminals on either end of the flight where noise bombards you as soon as you walk through the gate.”
“No one really has a bad life. Not even a bad day. Just bad moments.”
“Before I started chemotherapy treatments, I wrote down the best advice from doctors, family, friends, books, and survivors and created an 'Owner's Manual' to help me take care of myself. It would remind me that cancer is doable.”
“For me, being Catholic was who I was and who I am, just like I'm Irish and Slovak. It's just so ingrained in us.”
“We've come a long way from having one land line that was forbidden to be answered during dinner. We had no answering machine, just a dad who barked, 'Who calls during dinner? If it's important, they'll call back.' He was right.”
“We all have a personal pool of quicksand inside us where we begin to sink and need friends and family to find us and remind us of all the good that has been and will be.”
“As much as the Pulitzer is the hallmark of journalism, I think what I love the most is when somebody says they took my column and it's in their wallet. I have had people open their wallet and show me a corner of a column.”
“A book store is a treasure chest. Every time you walk in one, you strike gold.”
“If baking is any labor at all, it's a labor of love. A love that gets passed from generation to generation.”
“We all have that power to have a soul that magnifies God.”
“'Star Trek' never grabbed me. Every time I hear about Klingons, I think of those little lint balls that stick to your clothes in the dryer.”
“It takes tough love to order kids to step away from the iPhone or iPad during dinner or to take the devices away if they're interrupting and interfering with everyone else's pleasure at a movie, concert or other public event.”
“If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.”
“We are all on a journey of faith, and we have to polish that faith.”
“Too often, we get attention and sympathy by being a victim. If we're invested in someone being our villain, we must love being the victim. We have to let go of both characters in the story.”
“Going through chemo is like investing money in a retirement account. You feel the hit right now, but later in life you get to reap the benefits - by still being alive.”
“Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.”
“No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.”
“When you hear the word 'cancer,' it's as if someone took the game of Life and tossed it in the air. All the pieces go flying. The pieces land on a new board. Everything has shifted. You don't know where to start.”