
It was true what they had been saying: if people remember you, then you're not dead. It was very comforting.
Minding Frankie
by Maeve Binchy (1940-2012)
... tub of white butter. But it wasn't called white butter. What was it called? Not mayonnaise. No, it was too thick, like butter. What was its name?Some people say that they would rather have cancer because it may be able to be cured, while Alzheimer's at this point in time is unstoppable. Even Alice feels this way.
She'd trade Alzheimer's for cancer in a heartbeat. She felt ashamed for wishing this, and it was certainly a pointless bargaining, but she permitted herself the fantasy anyway. With cancer, she'd have something that she could fight. There was surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. There was the chance that she could win. Her family and the community at Harvard would rally behind her battle and consider it noble. And even if defeated in the end, she'd be able to look them knowingly in the eye and say good-bye before she left.I understand this view, but it is not my view. Probably it comes from watching two parents die of cancer. I would hate to know I had cancer. I would hate that 'good-bye.' Whereas, if I had Alzheimer's I wouldn't know, at least at some later stage. You know the Alzheimer's joke? The doctor says to the patient. 'I have two bits of news. You have cancer and you have Alzheimer's.' And the patient replies, 'well at least I don't have cancer.' This may seem irreverent and impossible, but it happened to Tom's father. He has had lymphoma for a couple years but it is very slow moving, and the doctor has said outright that this is not what will kill him. When Tom and his father were at a new doctor's office one day, there was a mention of chemotherapy. Tom told the doctor his father hadn't had chemo for his cancer. And Tom's father piped up, 'I have cancer?' So there you are. I would be happy with an illness that let me forget I had cancer. Yes, there are horrific things about it, but if I had my choice of the two that's what I would choose.
One in eight older Americans has Alzheimer’s disease.I am someone who believes in the gifts, even the strengths, that can accompany a dysfunction in the brain, and Still Alice illustrates my belief. Alice's daughter is an actress, and though Alice doesn't 'get' what is going on in a play, she does understand the essence, the truth of a character and what the actress is trying to portray in that character. In a very touching scene near the end, Alice doesn't remember her daughter Lydia's name or that this young woman is even her daughter but when Lydia asks
Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.
Over 15 million Americans provide unpaid care for a person with Alzheimer’s or other dementias.
Payments for care are estimated to be $200 billion in 2012.
"Hey, Mom, will you listen to me do this monologue I'm working on for class and tell me what you think it's about? Not the story, it's kind of long. You don't have to remember the words, just tell me what you think it's about emotionally. When I'm done, tell me how I made you feel, okay?"And Lisa Genova 'got it exactly right.' This is a perfect book. It is real but not completely discouraging. Facts are faced and not faced. People respond well and don't respond well. It is the truest fiction I've ever read. The author has given a great gift to the world.
Alice nodded, and the actress began. Alice watched and listened and focused beyond the words the actress spoke. She saw her eyes become desperate, searching, pleading for truth. She saw them land softly and gratefully on it. Her voice felt at first tentative and scared. Slowly, and without getting louder, it grew more confident and then joyful, playing sometimes like a song. Her eyebrows and shoulders and hands softened and opened, asking for acceptance and offering forgiveness. Her voice and body created an energy that filled Alice and moved her to tears. …
The actress stopped and came back into herself. She looked at Alice and waited.
"Okay, what do you feel?"
"I feel love. It's about love."
The actress squealed, rushed over to Alice, kissed her on the cheek, and smiled, every crease of her face delighted.
"Did I get it right?" asked Alice.
"You did, Mom. You got it exactly right."
Four times now winter has come and the falling snow still speaks of you. I sit down on every bench and I wait for you. Four times I have seen the rust colored leaves which died in autumn beneath our feet as we walked in the woods - do you remember? We'd be walking and people would say 'How happy they are, how happy are those two!'Heady stuff for a young girl. In those days, I was immersed in the poetry of Kenneth Patchen, and even Rod Mckuen for a while. ee cummings was so important in my life that for years I never used capital letters. My one venture into writing poetry was on black paper using white ink. Sadly (?) it has disappeared.
You start putting traditional chocolate mousse and creme brulee in your dessert selections, and the gourmands will declare you zombified ...One of the many pleasures of this series has been watching Clare grow into her sleuthing work. At the end of this book Mike actually suggests that she might want to become a Private Investigator. She is quick thinking, has good instincts, and is really quite fearless.
Sealed into their compound, the residents lived in a world that was, in many ways, more familiar than the England they had left behind. It was an England of Catherine Cookson paperbacks and clicking knitting needles, of Kraft Dairylea portions and a certain Proustian recall.Yet outside their hotel is India in all its glory. Bustling, noisy, full of all the various conditions of people.
the main boulevard of paris - champs elysĂ©e was full of people cuz it was a holiday. late in the afternoon there was a ceremony where veterans put a wreath or something under the arc de triomphe. we got some movies [8 mm, with no sound]. was quite impressive. … the evening of bastille day was wonderful. we walked to a bridge to watch fireworks that didn't come at all - but we enjoyed watching the people + just being part of it all. the french people are great. really full of life. in the little square near our hotel there was a midnite celebration outdoors with a dixieland band. people were dancing in the streets. we sat at a sidewalk cafĂ© for a while - was so neat to see people excited with living + not necessarily drunk. in america i would be afraid of a crowd like that but here everyone was just enjoying themselves. was a wonderful site to see. i'm so glad we were here for it cuz its the biggest french holiday.
Mr Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.Well, some of my happiest reading moments have been spent delighting in that special Wodehouse land.
"Blanked infernal fat-headed silly ass of a game! Nothing but a waste of time."The Oldest Member says
The Sage winced.
"Don't say that, my boy."
"But I do say it. What earthly good is golf? Life is stern and life is earnest. … Can you name me a single case where devotion to this pestilential pastime has done a man any practical good?"
"I could name a thousand."And he goes on to tell how Cuthbert Banks wins the girl and happiness through the game of golf. There's a funny line in which a Russian novelist, who is all the rage, says
"No novelists anywhere any good except me. P.G. Wodehouse and Tolstoi not bad. Not good, but not bad. …"In Sundered Hearts, the reader is told that
A lifetime of observing my fellow-creatures has convinced me that Nature intended us all to be golfers. In every human being the germ of golf is implanted at birth, and suppression causes it to grow and grow till - it may be at forty, fifty, sixty - it suddenly bursts its bounds and sweeps over the victim like a tidal wave. The wise man, who begins to play in childhood, is enabled to let the poison exude gradually from his system, with no harmful results. But a man like Mortimer Sturgis, with thirty-eight golfless years behind him is swept off his feet. He is carried away. He loses all sense of proportion.The stories proceed along, giving this reader an almost constant smile and some moments of outright laughter. The situations are quite ridiculous but are faced with great solemnity which makes them even funnier. I felt nothing but joy until I came to The Rough Stuff. A woman named Eunice loves novels where men were like
'brusque cavemen' who treated women like dirt.I'll tell you, those words chilled me. Those of us who read older books have noticed, and written about, the occasional racism and anti-semiticism which fly out of an author's pen without a thought. Well, there's another thing that I see in older books, and that is the hitting of women. It is often joked about, without any apparent wincing on the part of the writer.
What she wanted was a great, strong brute of a fellow who would tell her not to move her damned head; a rugged Viking of a chap who, if she did not keep her eye on the ball, would black it for her.
"That's a bullet from the Civil War. That was taken out of a Confederate soldier after the battle of Gettysburg."
"How do you know?" asked Matthew somewhat suspiciously, viewing the lump of lead with eight-year-old skepticism. …
"I know," said Paul, smiling a little as he tossed the bullet gently on his palm, testing its familiar weight. "You see, this was my grandmother's most prized possession."
… in the dark, with the warmth of the past close around them.So beautiful. I dearly loved this story, and went looking for more by the author. I bought Elisabeth Grace Foley's collection called The Ranch Next Door and Other Stories. It is available for the Nook and Kindle, and is also in paperback.
There will be no rules or targets in terms of how much you need to do or complete in order to be a part of Paris in July - just blog about anything French and you can join in.
Some ideas for the month might include:
Reading a French book - fiction or non-fiction -
Watching a French movie -
Listening to French music -
Cooking French food -
Experiencing French art, architecture or travel (or remembering travel experiences)-
Or anything else French inspired you can think of...
Watch Endeavour Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.