Two years ago, The Story Collider did a show with cancer patient community Smart Patients out in San Francisco that I was lucky enough to produce. I got to know six really special people who were fighting, or had fought, cancer, and work with them on their stories. Last year, I found out that two of those people, Raine and Ron, had passed away. Just this week, I found out a third, Stephanie, has passed away.

This is heartbreaking. I was fortunate to get to know these folks and to have them share their stories with me, and I will never forget them or their stories. Stephanie was a truly special and warm person. Her obituary describes her as "a quiet, but potent, lesbian-feminist activist." I can tell you from experience, she gave quality hugs.

We were only podcasted one of the stories from our Smart Patients show, "Fading Notes" by Emily Caudill (who is fortunately still with us), but you can watch the rest, including those from Raine, Ron, and Stephanie, on the Smart Patients YouTube channel. (You'll notice many of the patients were using notes, due to what they called "chemo brain.")

Sadly, they aren't the only storytellers we've lost to cancer. In 2010, Michelle Dobrawsky, one of our first storytellers on the podcast, passed away.

-- Erin Barker, Artistic Director