THE CHOICES WE MAKE!

A choice of five books lay in front of me!

I had just returned after visiting my daughters, earlier in London and then in Washington DC… an immensely enjoyable and memorable holiday.  As I flipped through the pages…some words caught my attention; Cleveland Park, Georgetown University Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts. I had driven past these places and these sights were fresh in my memory. I looked at the title: STAY OF EXECUTION. My love for murder mysteries and the familiar settings helped me decide. Now I could tell my daughter the dark secrets these places held!

So it was - The Stay of Execution by Stewart Alsop. I expected the book to be a cloak and dagger thriller, a murder, a false witness, a wronged sentence and the ultimate justice! The book was this and much more. It held me day and night..! I was spell bound.….it was dfficult to put down…It gripped my heart and soul…It opened my eyes! And for the first time in many many years, I sat up to think and decide. I made some life changing choices.

As I started to read, the enormity of the title hit me! It was the Red Blood Cells and Platelets that were being killed, the killer was untraceable, the tests stood as mute witness to the sentence of imminent death. Stewart Alsop had leukemia, acute myeloblastic leukemia. However, later tests were to reveal that there was no evidence of cancer, doctors remained baffled, his illness remained a mystery. So it was an Alsop diagnosis and an Alsop treatment. And the prognosis was more hopeful, his stable condition might last for years!

Stewart Alsop was a famed columnist  and his book, The Stay of Execution is ‘a sort of memoir’. He writes with both  the pain and pleasure . First, he made a decision – to shun out future thoughts and delve into the past. He recollects the love and friendship of family and friends along with his trips to the hospital for the  tests and the treatment.

At the same time, he presents his views and opinions on every topic of note and significance, some of which are truly inspiring. He writes about the ‘neurotic emotional interdependence between parents and children” and provides examples towards a healthy relationship.

‘Nature is  cruel’ he says and through experience, shares how one ignores this truth  in youth but lives to  realize it, without panic and fear, by coming to terms with death. And finally the golden words…There is a time to live but there is also a time to die. That time has not yet come for me.  But it will. It will come for all of us!