Proof I Was There with Adrienne Holland Hubbard
Proof I Was There
What if the memories you thought cancer had taken from you were still there—waiting to be found?
In “Proof I Was There,” Adrienne Holland Hubbard lies awake scrolling through photos of her two sons as babies. She remembers the love. She remembers the sweetness of those early years. But she also confronts something harder: how little of that time she can actually recall.
Her sons were 18 months and 5 months old when Adrienne was diagnosed with Stage I triple positive lobular breast cancer at 35. Treatment came quickly, and motherhood became something she experienced from behind a bedroom door, from a hospital bed, from the edges of photographs taken by other people.
She writes: “It was like I had vanished from my own story, the one I'd waited my whole life to live.”
But on this particular night, her camera roll begins to tell a different story.
There she is—pale, exhausted, changed. Holding her baby. Smiling at her son. Sitting together watching Bluey.
Proof.
Not proof that those years were easy. Not proof that cancer hadn't altered the motherhood she imagined. But proof that she was there.
“I wasn't erased. I was just harder to see for a while.”
This episode of The Burn is a tender reckoning with memory, motherhood, and the stories we tell ourselves about the years we lost. It asks what happens when we look again—and discover that maybe we were present in more of our own lives than we remember.
Adrienne is a writer and painter and lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with her husband, two young sons, and her very loved cats and dogs. She was diagnosed in 2022 at 35 with Stage I, triple positive, lobular breast cancer. Through her creative philosophy, Quiet Wellness, she explores motherhood, identity, and the art of beginning again.
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Writing Prompts Inspired by Today’s Episode
Set your timer for eight minutes, write without stopping or editing yourself. There is magic in leaning into that time. The prompt is:
I am living proof of…
This prompt comes directly from Adrienne’s story. I invite you to write about what you’ve lived through that you now walk the planet as living proof of. What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
If you find that you write best with a good prompt, check out our free prompts and learn about our writing workshops.
Happy writing! Until next time, take good care.
Episode Links
Read a transcript of this episode.
Purchase the 2025 “Metamorphosis” issue of Wildfire Journal.
Find Adrienne on Instagram and Substack.
More about our episode sponsor: StyleEsteem
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