In May of 2008, an unusual home exchange request reached the larger home exchange community from Los Angeles.

A member of Home Base Holiday had been diagnosed with leukemia and she was also pregnant. She was looking for home exchange accommodation near Cedars Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills during the course of her cancer treatment immediately after her baby was born late July.
In a joined effort, several home exchange clubs among them JewettStreet, contacted their members in LA in order to help Leslie, the pregnant cancer patient, to find suitable accommodation. In the process Leslie and I developed an interesting and profound email correspondence. Needless to say the contact faded as the estimated due date was nearing.

I have been thinking ever since what happended to Leslie and her baby. This week I got mail from her:

“Thanks for checking in on me.  I am doing very well.  My baby, Merceda, just turned 1 on the 15th and both she and I are healthy.  I had chemo in Sept. and went into remission in October.  I feel entirely normal except the way I look at life is very different now.  I am extremely grateful and try very hard to live in the present moment.  I understand what a gift is each moment that I am healthy and alive.”

Leslie has written about her unusual journey in her own blog.