Gila Pfeffer is the author of "Nearly Departed: Adventures in Loss, Cancer, and Other Inconveniences."Photo Credit: Sarah RaananGila Pfeffer is a humor writer who splits her time between NYC and London.The following is an adapted excerpt from her memoir, "Nearly Departed: Adventures in Loss, Cancer, and Other Inconveniences."It chronicles her journey as a cancer previvor and survivor, determined to reverse the cycle of death in her family.Eleven years after my mother died in 1994, when I was 31, I learned that a simple blood test could confirm whether I was a carrier of a BRCA gene mutation.