The Luckiest Unlucky Couple: A Medical Love Story by Shepard, Alicia C.

A late-in-life love story unfolds between two adventurers and then everything changes. When he is cured, she is diagnosed, and what follows is a journey of resilience, courage, and the power of love. The story goes something like this: successful journalist and author, Alicia (Lisa), in her late 50s, is single and mostly happy but has given up on finding love again after her first marriage ended abruptly.
Her friends convince her to at least try Match.com, and she finds the love of her life. Then out of the blue, he is diagnosed with melanoma, which has traveled to his brain. Through immunotherapy, he gets cured. And through the process of his illness, she and his children---not especially close before---become a family. That is the first half of the book.

Not long after he is pronounced cured, she is diagnosed with lung cancer. That is the second half of the book, wherein she struggles with cancer, dying, surrendering to support, gets remarried, and ultimately finds deeper love for all things. The book not only details her emotional journey, it also contains a lot of useful information on cutting-edge immunotherapy techniques, and how to live in the moment when that is not your predisposition. The epilogue, written by her husband, shares life after Lisa's passing. In the appendix the couple shares helpful tips for patients and families wrestling with cancer.

Author: Alicia C. Shepard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 02/05/2026
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 8.63h x 6.01w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9798216270058

About the Author
Alicia Shepard was an award-winning journalist, professor, media trainer, media critic, and op-ed writer whose writing was published in leading outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and People magazine. She is a former ombudsman for National Public Radio and contributor to USA Today and NBC News.com