I don't know. I read today was World Water Day. Whatever.
I was the kid who read the cereal box at the breakfast table because I was told bringing a book to the table was rude.
Southern people are many things, but rude is not one of them.
Some sad news from the blogging world yesterday. Cathy Seipp, a writer from Los Angeles, died. She fought lung cancer for the last 5 years, although she was never a smoker. I stumbled upon her blog a couple of years ago and only commented a couple of times. I felt she was light years ahead of me intellectually and was too intimidated to do so. She was known for being a media critic and her zeal in taking on the LA Times. She was described as a conservative by choice, not birth. She wrote for National Review Online and Independent Women's Forum most recently.
She was a devoted single mom to Maia, now a freshman in college. Cathy was 49.
Michelle Eckerle is one of 21 new recruits in the AIDS Corps. She is a pediatrician from Cincinnati, the 30 year old mother of five. She is taking her family to Botswana this summer. Her husband, Andrew, is an art professor at Northern Kentucky University. Wanting to give their children a unique, unforgettable life experience, they focused on searching for work in international health. Andrew plans to focus on caring for the children and doing photography and drawing. She was pregnant with twins last year when she was awarded a slot in the first Pediatric AIDS Corps. She will have medical school loan reimbursement and a stipend.
The Pediatric AIDS Corps is funded by Baylor and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. Texas Children's Hospital is one of Baylor's teaching hospitals. The hospital has made global AIDS an area of emphasis.
6 comments:
The lung cancer stories in people who never smoked always scare me, and make me sad. And make me feel really small, somehow.
What an amazing experience the Eckerle family is about to embark upon. I wonder if I'd have the courage to take it on, even given the opportunity.
Nice of you to pay homage, give respect to fine people this way.
I read the cereal box often, for a very long time. I decline to say how long.
I knew a young doctor who had just finished residency and started his OB/Gyn practice when he developed adenocarcinoma of the lung. He never smoked but this type is not associated with smoking as much as the squamous cell carcinoma. He left a wife and three young children. So sad.
While I don't like the politics of John Edwards, I do feel for his wife and their family. It really doesn't sound good at all, the recurrence of the breast carcinoma and metastasis to the bone. I wish her well.
Then there are those who make us want to believe in the good within people. Kudos to the Eckerle family.
I was just reading my cereal box yesterday morning. I learned a couple new things about the Lewis and Clark expedition! :)
I was a cereal box reader too.
Very sad about the lady. I have been reading some blogs by people with cystic fibrosis, and I went to one yesterday, only to read that the lady had died. She had been hoping for a lung transplant, looking for a live donor. It is sad.
More power to this young doctor. Her family will never be the same. I believe that everyone in the US should take their children and travel to a third world country.
I often wanted to pack up some of the "poor" children from my school who were on free lunch, but whose parents drove new cars, and they had the finest clothes, on a boat or plane and take them and set them down in the middle of Haiti so that they could see what poor is.
Hi there, I read your blog and enjoy it very much. Just wanted to let you know that I am the husband of the doctor and mother of 5 children that moved to Botswana you highlighted in your blog(Michelle Eckerle).. I wanted to let you know we really appreciated your comments and are doing well here in Gaborone. Just wanted to let you know we have a blog site as well , where you can keep up with our adventures.. it's www.eckerlefamily.blogspot.com .
Thanks again for the props.
Andrew eckerle
andrewecks@hotmail.com
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