Navigating Health Challenges in Old Age
Old age surprises are not fun! Be prepared. Here’s what I’ve learned first-hand, so far, at 73…. Continue reading Navigating Health Challenges in Old Age
Category: Women’s Issues
Suicide & Me
Suicide has been a life-long infliction since I was a child. In college, tired of it, I decided suicide should be turned outward into murder. I was sick of the ‘weak female’ image of women. I actually thanked God a few times for being born a woman. At 5’3” it was highly unlikely I would murder anyone. At 19, a friend confided her mother’s suicide, finding her hanging from a basement wooden beam. That solidified my earlier decision not to have children: What a horror to inflict upon a child! “Have you ever thought of committing suicide?” In college, I … Continue reading Suicide & Me
Three Books I Stopped Reading
Addicted to reading, I clearly remember the time when I was around 23 and diligently read to the end of a very long Danielle Steel book. It was so superficial, I was shocked, dismayed and outraged. I threw the book across my bedroom. It smacked into the wall with a loud thang. That was the first and last time I read a romance novel. I stopped reading three books for the opposite reason: they were so good, but emotionally devastating, I could not endure reading more. First, a friend loaned me a copy of SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. The book vividly … Continue reading Three Books I Stopped Reading
Parents, don’t let your kids take……
The drug CIPRO, an antibiotic that may cause life lasting side effects that may destroy one’s quality of life. Please refuse it should a doctor or hospital offer it. I received a three-hour drip of it unwittingly. Once I woke and discovered it, I removed the tube from my arm. Perhaps too late…. From NATURE magazine, March 2018 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03267-5 ….But after persistent campaigning by patient groups, attitudes began to change in 2008, when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the first of what would be a series of strong alerts about the side effects of fluoroquinolone drugs, including … Continue reading Parents, don’t let your kids take……
Top 10 Foreign Delights by countries lived in
(All photos are mine except for the Bali postcard and above UAE holiday card) 1. CANADA – 2 years Stanley Park, Vancouver http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx Two years of happiness. Fantastic opportunity to write and receive feedback on my writing in … Continue reading Top 10 Foreign Delights by countries lived in
My Facelift at 54 Years Old, 2004
When I was about seven or eight in the 1950s, I told my mom and six sisters that when I get old, “I’m having a facelift!” They laughed. I insisted. I was dreaming of an impossible luxury. I thought by the time I needed one, science would offer a new way to do it, and do it cheaper. Norman Mailer had two deep thought lines over his nose, often hidden with glasses. However, on a woman, walking down a street, even with glasses, men ordered me to smile. Customs officers ordered my luggage inspected. Students feared angering me. Overseas job … Continue reading My Facelift at 54 Years Old, 2004
Diabetes – The Body’s Civil War
“I’d rather die than have my leg chopped off!” my mother boomed. She was 60. Her leg was gangrened from diabetes. When it was amputated, she didn’t die. For the next nine years, she refused a wheelchair, refused to exercise, and refused to inject herself with insulin. She dominated the living room and her husband of nearly 40 years from her hospitalized bed. In her late fifties, around 1970, my mother’s moods had radically swung from sudden angry outbursts to demands to immediately eat. My older sisters thought her erratic behavior presaged another nervous breakdown. She was later diagnosed diabetic. Before … Continue reading Diabetes – The Body’s Civil War
Alice Delaney Walker - Teacher, Writer, Traveller 