Gila Pfeffer lost her mother at 20 and her grandmother before that — both to cancers she carried the genetic blueprint for. So she did something very atypical at the time: a preventative double mastectomy in 2008, years before Angelina Jolie made the choice a norm. Unfortunately, Gila got breast cancer anyway. Both a previvor AND survivor, Gila is one of the funniest people you'll ever hear talk about all of it.
An award-winning author and humorist, Gila wrote her memoir *Nearly Departed* through the lens of her Orthodox Jewish life — Shiva, mikveh, wigs during chemo, the whole thing. This conversation lands during a week built for grief, and Gila makes the case that laughter isn't a betrayal of grief. It's the way through.
Follow Gila on Instagram @gilapfeffer and check out her novel, Nearly Departed, anywhere you get your books!
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**What We Discuss:**
00:00 Intro & Episode Agenda
06:00 Writing Nearly Departed through an Orthodox lens
12:00 Same chemo as her mother, thirty years later
17:00 Phil, and the birthday that felt like a sign
21:00 Grief you don't expect — and its sixth stage
28:00 Emuna, agency, and choosing the mastectomy
35:00 Why teenage Gila would be shocked
40:00 How Margarita and Gila actually met (a Carnegie Hall heist)
45:00 Find a way to laugh
47:00 Closing Remarks & Guest Nomination
