Memoirs shed light on pandemic, terminal illness
By M. CLARE HAEFNER | Covers courtesy of the publishers
Everything changes in a heartbeat when a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal disease.
In Loose of Earth: A Memoir (University of Texas Press, April 2024), author Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn shares her family’s wait for a miracle that never came.
The oldest of five children, Blackburn was 12 and living in Lubbock in the late 1990s when her father, a third-generation Air Force pilot, was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer at age 38. Following her mother’s directive, the deeply devout family committed to an extreme diet and sought deliverance from extreme sources: a traveling tent preacher, a Malaysian holy man and a local faith-healer who led services called “Miracles on 34th Street.”
Blackburn later learned that her father’s terminal diagnosis was part of a larger problem. ”Forever chemicals” — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAs — had contaminated the water supply in West Texas and entered the bloodstream of many people who lived there. PFAs were also present in the water in several other military towns where her father grew up.
Blackburn learned the truth as she began working on her memoir, which is also partly a call for environmental justice. “Some people will know PFAs from Teflon products produced by the company DuPont,” Blackburn told The Texas Standard. “But what I discovered was that these chemicals were present in military firefighting foam, which came into wide use in the 1970s.”
Blackburn said it took a long time for her to come to terms with her father’s diagnosis and death, as well as the impact of praying for a cure that never came. She now hopes her memoir will help others dealing with the death of a loved one.
On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci, M.D. (Viking, June 2024): When the COVID-19 pandemic began, billions of people turned to Dr. Anthony Fauci for answers and hope.
As one of the nation’s top infectious disease experts, it wasn’t Fauci’s first time dealing with an unknown pathogen. He also led the country through the Ebola, SARS, West Nile and anthrax crises.
In his new memoir, Fauci ”speaks truth to power,” sharing how his boyhood in Brooklyn, New York, shaped his interest in caring for critically ill patients. He also shares how he built a career in medicine and navigated the pitfalls of Washington politics to advise seven presidents on everything from AIDS to preparing for a pandemic.
Hailed as a hero, On Call gives Fauci another turn in the spotlight as he reflects on his six-decade career as a public servant and how he earned the trust of millions seeking reassurance and a way forward amid a global health crisis.
