Facing a travail with panache

Today is a good day for Tracy Ayers.

But then, every day is a good day for the Manhattan Middle School theater and dance teacher.

It's not that she's always happy or feeling well; she has metastatic malignant melanoma -- an advanced form of cancer with a low survival rate -- and she recently endured the hardest week of an aggressive four-week biochemotherapy program that left her sick, tired and weak.

But she's alive, and she's learned her tumor is shrinking.

"I have this overwhelming gratitude for people and life and family and sunshine," she said.

And the 39-year-old mother of two said she's never been panged by the question, "Why me?"

"Why anyone?" she said. "I try not to let my mind go negative."

That philosophy -- along with Ayers' energy, openness and grace as she struggles for her life -- have carried into Manhattan, although she's had to take medical leave.


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