Commentary: Amid cancer and the coronavirus, it was leftovers that forged our friendship

My husband occasionally roots through our freezer and pulls out forgotten items, giving me a “can we please throw this away” look.

This time the container read “Lentil Surprise” in my neighbor Keren’s cheerful handwriting.

Keren and her family lived two doors up. Four years ago, she was diagnosed with leukemia. A bone marrow transplant from her sister that year seemed to work the needed miracle, but she dealt with side effects from radiation, chemotherapy and the immune-suppressing drugs that kept her from rejecting the transplant.

Keren’s husband, Mike, had