Longtime Rockville Centre resident Jana Brazzano, a breast cancer survivor, has launched a blog, “I’m Jana and these are snippets of my life.” It is focused on sharing her cancer journey, and on topics related to overcoming life’s unexpected challenges.
Brazzano, 54, debuted the blog, also known as “Simply Jana,” on Oct. 13. It delved into her battle with diagnoses, intense treatments and seeing what would “simply” work. Since then she has released four more episodes.
“I just really wanted to start this blog, first of all, because I wanted to feel like I could write about it,” she said of her cancer, “and also to try and see if I could help others in finding reassurance as they battle their own disease, and that they take time to heal and they find happiness at their own pace. It takes a while to be able to do the things that you once were able to do.”
Brazzano has explored different themes, such as coping with the word “cancer,” confronting new losses while notching new wins, the symbolism of the four seasons and saving grace for oneself.
Her newest episode, titled “Saving Grace, Saying Grace, Giving Myself Grace,” dropped Oct. 30. “I just speak about having to take one step at a time in order to get basically to where you’re going,” she said, “which is healing yourself, but giving yourself that type of time to get there, and just believing that you will, you will get there, and you will have rewarding experiences afterwards.”
“Everyone has a different story, and this is just mine,” Brazzano added. “I’m just at a better place now, as far as being able to do the things that I love to do, with friends, with family and even with work, so I did want to share my story because of that, and just say that it’s OK to give yourself grace, that time to heal. Everyone’s story is different.”
Brazzano, a teacher’s aide at William S. Covert Elementary School, was 50 when she was diagnosed. “It turned out to be myself that actually found a lump,” she said. “From then on, the wheels just rolled, and everything quickly started moving at a fast pace, where the goal was to find a means to try and just eliminate the disease and go through all those motions.”
A week after her 50th birthday, following a biopsy, Brazzano was told she had cancer characterized as stages 2 and 3. She began chemotherapy, and underwent a double mastectomy with deep flap surgery. Her treatment continued for two and a half years, and she is now in remission.
The Rockville Centre community rallied around her as she went through treatment and began a new journey as a survivor. “The one thing that I did find really quickly is that the community really came together in a way that was so unexpected, but so necessary,” Brazzano said.
One of her biggest supporters was the RVC Breast Cancer Coalition. “The little things that they would do, such as just dropping off flowers on probably one of the worst days that I could have ever imagined,” she said, “then moving forward quickly with just the boosting calls — and even the community in my workplace, as well, just was so supportive.”
“I had the privilege of witnessing her journey firsthand — the strength, grace and positivity she carried through every stage of her diagnosis, double mastectomy and recovery,” Brazzano’s sister, Jennifer Cartagena, emailed to The Herald. “But reading it now through her own words and emotions has given me an entirely new perspective. Her storytelling is raw, reflective and deeply moving. You can feel the hope, faith and resilience that carried her through the toughest moments.”
Brazzano felt supported by the village school district community as well, and from the Francis F. Wilson School, where both of her daughters, Isabella, 23, and Francesca, 20, were students years ago.
“One of the probably nicest things that did happen,” Brazzano recounted, “was that the community came together, the elementary school community — who obviously, like the kids, were already in high school and college — came together to form a meal train, and would drop off food, just whenever they decided to, which was fantastic. It was incredible. It was helpful. It took one (more) thing off my husband’s plate, and it just really showed the support and the unity that Rockville Centre has.”
Brazzano moved to Rockville Centre from Oceanside shortly after marrying her husband, Leo, in 1998, and they have been here ever since. “It’s a very big, family-oriented community, and just when people need help, there’s never anybody that doesn’t want to help,” she said. “There’s always that giving feeling here, which is why we’re still here. We love it.”
Although Brazzano’s blog is fresh, it’s only just the beginning. “I just would like to, in some way, help others feel or find reassurance that their own battles are obviously done at their own pace,” she said. “But to also focus not just on the healing part, but to find that happiness once again that they may have had in the past and that is still very possible, even after all of the experience that they’ve gone through.”
For more on Brazzano’s blog, visit SimplyJana.weebly.com.
