A Lucky Man

 

This is a photo of my grandfather. You might imagine he was a healthy guy. He’s holding his prize rooster, Red. If you look closely, you can see he’s also holding a black kitten, named Black. There he is--introducing Red and Black to each other. Grandpa was a funny guy. It’s a miracle the rooster didn’t leap up and attack the poor little kitty. But, according to my grandpa, he wouldn’t dare. Things like that didn’t happen to my grandpa.

Why? Because he was a lucky man.

And he was a lucky man--lucky to be alive. Back when he was just seventeen years old, he came down with the most dreaded disease of the early 20th century--TB or Tuberculosis, also known as Consumption. Back then, the disease was basically a death sentence and the only available help for the afflicted was something called the Fresh Air Cure, which wasn’t much of a cure.

This past week, I visited the Tuberculosis Museum at Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains and toured the care cottages where my grandfather lived for many months. He was one of those lucky working poor from the city to receive public assistance and the opportunity to convalesce on the open-air porches, in the sunshine, covered in donated fur blankets.

That was the cure because this was in the days before antibiotics were discovered.

When I was a little girl, Grandpa told stories of his time in the Saranac Lake Care Cottages--sitting out on the porch in the brutal winter’s chill. But then, there was some flirting with the consumptive ladies while they coughed delicately into little lace hankies. Just like in La Boheme!

Okay, not exactly. And sadly, many in his cohort never made it home alive.

But my grandpa did. And he told me that he was a very lucky man. This sense of luck followed him throughout his very long life.

Creative Friends--there have been challenging, even traumatic events in your life, but you’ve survived and you’ve lived to tell the tale. This means you’re lucky. So, go ahead and tell yourself you’re lucky. Because, you know what? You are lucky.

Love,

Jamie

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