# Days Like These: A life cut short by cancer, a love that touched the world

Kristian Anderson

When Kristian Anderson received the diagnosis that every devoted husband and father fears, he refused to resign himself silently to fate.He began a brave and candid blog as he underwent treatment for cancer: sharing the joy of each small victory, the devastation in every setback, and the agonising realisation that he wouldn’t always be able to protect and comfort his little boys when they were lonely or afraid, or grow old with his wife and soulmate.His posts full of hope, faith, and breathtaking honesty captured Australian hearts, then swept across the Pacific, gathering followers. A poignant video tribute for his wife Rachel became an internet phenomenon, attracting messages from well-wishers across the globe.After his death, their love inspired Rachel to bring together Kristian’s blog entries combined with her own intimate reflections. Days Like These is a heartbreaking account of her husband’s final battle, his strength and courage, but it is also a story about coming back from grief, and learning how to live again.

For Cody Israel and Jakob Judah. It was all for you.

## Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Foreword: A note from Rachel Anderson

1. Let me bring you up to speed

2. Going the distance

3. One of the lucky people

4. Wonderful inconvenience

5. Calling all angels

6. Dead man walking

7. How the light gets in

Epilogue

Picture Section

Thank you

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publishers

## Foreword. A note from Rachel Anderson

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in

LEONARD COHEN, ‘ANTHEM’

My name is Rachel Anderson and I am Kristian Anderson’s wife. I will not say ‘was’, even though Kristian left this life on 2 January 2012.

Kristian was my husband, the father of our two boys Cody and Jakob, a television editor, musician, man of faith. Through the last two years of his life Kristian did battle with cancer in his bowel and liver. His way of keeping his friends and family updated with what was happening with his cancer battle and in our world was through his blog, How the Light Gets In (http://howthelightgetsin.net). In choosing the name, Kristian was inspired by Leonard Cohen’s lyrics; he said that the words seemed like a good fit for him at that time in his life.

As it turned out, Kristian’s blog was seen by people far beyond the immediate circle of those who loved him. More than a quarter of a million people paid a visit from all around the globe: he had many visitors from Australia, the United States and New Zealand as well as more than 150 other countries. In the week he died, there were over 450,000 hits on the blog.

Through his last months here, Kristian worked on writing a book that he could leave behind for Cody, Jakob and me, drawing on words and photos from his blog. Now that he is gone, it seemed that one way we could honour his memory was to make sure this book came to be.

So here it is. I hope that it will be a blessing to the many who loved and supported Kristian through the time he was with us.

Rachel Anderson

February 2012