Emily Zarecki‘s debut memoir, Golden Scars: How the Death of My Husband Prepared Me to Battle Breast Cancer, was released this March. The memoir shares her journey with breast cancer while experiencing flashbacks from when she lost her first husband.
Zarecki was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2020 after helping her mother battle ovarian cancer before she passed away in 2019. Zarecki began treatment shortly after her diagnosis while also dealing with the struggles that accompany a global pandemic.
COVID-19 broke out just a few months before Zarecki was diagnosed with breast cancer so she had to navigate not only battling breast cancer but doing it in a more uncertain world.
“It was definitely different and knowing that because my immune system was pretty much shot, I wasn’t able to physically be close with anyone outside of my family,” Zarecki said.
Even though she was not able to be physically present with extended family and friends she said she still felt their support and love through phone calls and the meals for the family. She was also fortunate enough to have her husband, Mark Zarecki, alongside her for most of her chemo and radiation treatments.
Throughout her cancer journey she found herself reflecting on another hardship that she faced earlier in her life, the loss of her first husband and father of her three children. In July 2009, Zarecki’s first husband, Steven Barry, suddenly died at the age of 44 leaving her to raise their three children.
“I wanted to find a way to be able to bring all of the parts of my story together because I felt like having come through all of those things, and being on the other side, I was still a person always living with the grief,” Zarecki said. “Realizing that getting through those hard things really helped me face cancer in a way of saying, ‘I’ve done hard things before.'”
Her story is also told through the cover art of the memoir. The cover and title were inspired by the Japanese art form Kintsugi which involves repairing broken pottery with golden lacquer.
“It felt so different and then to see that description of the symbolism of Kintsugi I thought was just so neat to say that, ‘Yes, this is my story, these kinds of scars as they are more internal are there,'” she said. “I was like it really is becoming my story and how I choose to move forward with that story.”
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The feathers on the cover represent her late husband and his passion for wildlife. He worked for the Ohio Division of Wildlife as a waterfowl biologist when he and Zarecki met at an event to reintroduce trumpeter swans to the Toledo area.
Zarecki became inspired to write this book during Diana Patton‘s eight-week program, Rise Advocacy Academy. The program also inspired her to become more active in advocacy work with the organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She is now an advocacy ambassador for the organization and recently went to Washington D.C. to advocate for bills that will help make healthcare more accessible.
After her treatment, Zarecki also began her own PR and communications company, Clarion Communications. Clarion Communications is primarily a healthcare communications company. It offers many services like crisis communications, strategy, media relations and content development.
Zarecki is thrilled with the feedback that she has been receiving from her memoir so far and hopes that her story can inspire others going through a similar experience to never give up.
“Its a personal story but its so gratifying to hear people say ‘It felt like I was with you walking through your cancer journey,'” she said.
For more information or to purchase the book visit emilyzarecki.com.
