Fortune's Daughter

When Carmen Juárez moved to Saipan with her husband and daughter, she fell in love with the lush beauty and welcoming community of the tropical Pacific island. Within a couple of years, however, her island life would be upended by a cancer diagnosis, sending Carmen back to the states for hospitalization and launching a decades-long battle against the disease.

Fortune’s Daughter follows Carmen through five bouts with cancer and the challenges of rebuilding her life each time. She maintains strength through memories of a loving childhood in 1950s Colorado, evoking a house full of brothers, spirited performances with the Florence Kessler School of Dramatic Art & Stage Dancing, visits to relatives in rural farmlands, and the influence of her parents: Mama’s belief in the spirit world, Daddy chauffeuring a carful of preteens to the skating rink on Sundays, and, decades later, waiting in countless clinic and hospital lobbies, ready to drive Carmen home.

Juárez guides us through advancements in oncology, from chemotherapy to targeted immunotherapy to the emergence of genetics in understanding the disease.

Told with the voice of a true survivor, Fortune’s Daughter invites readers to find resilience and hope in their own lives.