Up in Smoke

A Sneak Peek from Invincible, My Upcoming Memoir

Candra Anaya
6 min readJul 17, 2022

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Invincible ~ Braving 1-in-a-billion odds, a new mom duels with death and chooses life as she faces a triple diagnosis of MS, Chordoma cancer, and brain tumors in what ultimately becomes a spiritual quest to save her physical self.

I don’t know what woke me first- the sound of the alarm, the blinking light, or the smell of smoke. Maybe a combination of the three? Disoriented by the sudden assault overwhelming my senses, I slowly took in my surroundings. I glanced out the curtain-less window. It was still dark, yet the sky had an iridescent orange tint. It must be close to sunrise.

Photo by Kym MacKinnon on Unsplash

On the ceiling hung a fixture I never noticed before. It looked like someone plucked a single siren from the top of a cop car and used super glue to hang it upside down above me. Why was it flashing? In the distance, there was a rhythmic sound of an alarm droning on and on. For god’s sake, somebody hit the damn snooze button already. My senses were pummeled, not least of which included a smothering odor- like an indoor bonfire with every window sealed shut. The cooks must have burned the hell out of breakfast. Well, at least it didn’t smell like urine for once.

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Candra Anaya
Candra Anaya

Written by Candra Anaya

Advice columnist, DearQueer~ Gayly Giving Advice Straight from the Heart. Co-author of bestseller, The Life-Changing Power of Self-Love. https://CandraAnaya.com