Every September, I receive a slew of invitations in the mail, from fashion parties to art openings to benefits; the courting ritual now symbolic of fall season in Manhattan. The stationery is thick and grainy; the lettering embossed or engraved.

Disappointment often ensues, as the crafty invitation divulges but the scheming hands of a savvy PR firm.

Since 2005, every autumn, one invitation I eagerly await. For the second year I am invited to the Stem Cell Transplant Survivors Party at Memorial Sloan Kettering. All those of us, at one time afflicted with a blood cancer (lymphoma, leukemia etc.) and treated with a stem cell transplant, gather for a celebratory evening in honor of patients, family, friends and the medical team.

A year ago, as I anxiously waited for test results at the hospital, my oncologist, Dr. Nimer, asked for my advice on the final touches of the party invitation before its mailing: “What do you think about this orange shade for the sun and that silver-blue tone for a background?”

There are invitations and then there are celebrations.