Rewriting Illness by Elizabeth Benedict

 

Elizabeth Benedict’s fascinating memoir traces the progression of her illness from a small, suspicious lump under her arm through to her various treatments. Elizabeth writes with wit and candour, and her conversational tone is wonderfully inviting. I’m sure I could have read it in one sitting but I felt like I was conversing with a friend and I had to keep stopping and putting in my two bobs’ worth! 

To me, as an Australian, a horrifying aspect of Elizabeth’s care was financial. She was personally responsible for the costs of her scans and chemotherapy and had to hope her particular insurance policy covered them. In Australia, whether insured or not, all such treatments would surely have been  provided for under our health care system. The last thing she needed was to worry about payment while coping with a serious illness.

Elizabeth quotes occasionally the late, wonderful Nora Ephron. What an inspiration Nora Ephron would have been for her. Of course, in writing about her illness Elizabeth touches on her personal life story. She has the perfect husband for her situation;  he is loving and caring but above all remains calm. She writes of her life as a writer, and touches on her travels and her past history, making me wish I had a friend like her!  It is hard to imagine how Elizabeth must have felt with this insidious intrusion into her happy life: she was working with graduating school students, helping prepare their college applications, she was about to start teaching a fiction writing workshop and, most importantly, she had “…found true love” after “…years of loneliness”.

The Australian writers, Susan Duncan and Pamela Bone, have both written about their encounters with cancer. It is such a brave, generous, unselfish thing to do; as well as promoting understanding to some extent of what they are experiencing, hopefully helping someone else who might be facing the same thing. 

Thank you, Elizabeth Benedict, for sharing your inspirational story. I wish you, James and Emily many more happy, loving years.

Published by Mandel Vilar Press