Caring Today article
Lynn Johnston was profiled in the MAY/JUNE issue of Caring Today
She primarily is talking about the Grandpa Jim stroke storyline. I will comment on the parts I found interesting.
Talking about her mother-in-law’s stroke:
It was amazing to see. She simply looked at us with a strange expression and started to crumple. A friend sat her down. She looked at us-yet, she wasn't looking at us. We called the ambulance to take her to the hospital. Her stroke was sudden yet so gentle.
What is amazing to me is the detachment from the situation. She describes the moment as if she were writing it as a description in a book, but there is no emotional detail written for either her or the people around her at the time.
Because the grandfather in the strip is in his eighties and had smoked and had had a rich life, perhaps that's what happened to him.
I love this phrase “had a rich life”. While smoking is suppose to double your chances of having a stroke, I am not sure a rich life does.
My own neurologist is a stroke specialist, so when I brought forth this subject to him he said, "Anything you want to know, I'll help you."
Here I have a few problems, primarily because the initial strips right after Grandpa Jim’s first stroke showed Lynn had not researched it. Now, she says she had ready access to someone knowledgeable on the subject and apparently chose not to consult him until after those initial strips.
Talking about someone she knows who had a stroke and his wife.
He's in a wheelchair, and his wife has devoted her life to him and loves him dearly. She doesn't resent her "imprisonment," as it were, except from time to time when she rather hides this as something she is guilty about. I wanted to explore all of this.
Although this sentence doesn’t exactly make sense, I would still be interested in seeing this part explored, i.e. the character of Iris feeling resentment, then trying to hide those feelings out of guilt.
Talking about her mother and her cancer.
Her attitude was clinical and considerate, and everybody in the hospital loved her because she was not a complainer.
Talking about her father-in-law being bent over all the time.
The fact that he never complained endeared him to all of us and made us respect him so much. Yet, there were others we knew who maybe didn't suffer as much as he did, but their whole world was their suffering, and that's all they talked about. After a while you become immune to their conversation because you start to lose respect for them. You get bored with it. It's odd, but that's the truth. You don't want to take them out and you don't want to spend time with them because you can't do anything about their pain and all you can do is listen.
Very interesting, this admiration for not complaining. We have often commented that the Pattersons spend very little time with Grandpa Jim and even less time helping out Iris; but could this be Lynn Johnston’s method of saying, “Iris (and people like you), if you would stop complaining so much, you would get more help and attention.”?
Talking about her dad taking care of her mom.
But he also hid from us that he had lung cancer. He knew he was very ill; he couldn't breathe, he couldn't sleep lying down because his lungs would fill with water. He hid that from us, and himself perhaps, because he wanted to stay healthy and aware for her. He wanted to be constantly vigilant.
This is an interesting story. A quick internet search shows me that the standard method of treating lungs filling with water is to remove the water via a surgery. So it appears this did not happen because Lynn’s dad didn’t let anyone know he was having this problem; so they could not insist on his getting the surgery and take him out of action, so to speak. It also says that Lynn’s father did not trust anyone else to be constantly vigilant for his wife other than him. I would ask some follow-up questions about this, but the interviewer apparently does not, since his next question is:
CT: Do you think most people realize the effect caregiving has on the entirety of the family?
And now for my favourite question:
CT: How involved was your husband in caring for his dad?
LJ: When it came to looking after his dad, I took that responsibility.
That’s as close you get to a Rod Johnston slam in this article, and I note that Lynn does not correct the interviewer by saying “ex-husband.” Congratulations to Lynn Johnston for not mentioning the divorce and of course, Charles Schulz. This is her best interview in a long time.
I took it upon myself to spend the time with Tom. I loved him. He was a joy to be with. I admired him for his ability to endure the illness without complaint.
This is really the theme for this article, to be ill or to care for someone who is ill, without complaining about it and annoying other people. Shut up and be sick?
Talking about niece Stephanie and Shannon Lake
But if it hadn't been for Stephanie, the character [Shannon] would never have happened. I would never have had the permission to do it. Unless you know someone who can tell you his or her story, you really can't write about it.
This should be the theme for Lynn Johnston’s writing.
It's expensive to bring in a trained helper to do these things. But I think that expense is essential. You shouldn't think about it as an expense but as an essential. One person cannot do it all without losing some of their own quality of life, if not all of it.
I thought that in Ontario, the government paid for caregivers, so I wonder if she is talking about people to supplement those government-paid givers.
She primarily is talking about the Grandpa Jim stroke storyline. I will comment on the parts I found interesting.
Talking about her mother-in-law’s stroke:
It was amazing to see. She simply looked at us with a strange expression and started to crumple. A friend sat her down. She looked at us-yet, she wasn't looking at us. We called the ambulance to take her to the hospital. Her stroke was sudden yet so gentle.
What is amazing to me is the detachment from the situation. She describes the moment as if she were writing it as a description in a book, but there is no emotional detail written for either her or the people around her at the time.
Because the grandfather in the strip is in his eighties and had smoked and had had a rich life, perhaps that's what happened to him.
I love this phrase “had a rich life”. While smoking is suppose to double your chances of having a stroke, I am not sure a rich life does.
My own neurologist is a stroke specialist, so when I brought forth this subject to him he said, "Anything you want to know, I'll help you."
Here I have a few problems, primarily because the initial strips right after Grandpa Jim’s first stroke showed Lynn had not researched it. Now, she says she had ready access to someone knowledgeable on the subject and apparently chose not to consult him until after those initial strips.
Talking about someone she knows who had a stroke and his wife.
He's in a wheelchair, and his wife has devoted her life to him and loves him dearly. She doesn't resent her "imprisonment," as it were, except from time to time when she rather hides this as something she is guilty about. I wanted to explore all of this.
Although this sentence doesn’t exactly make sense, I would still be interested in seeing this part explored, i.e. the character of Iris feeling resentment, then trying to hide those feelings out of guilt.
Talking about her mother and her cancer.
Her attitude was clinical and considerate, and everybody in the hospital loved her because she was not a complainer.
Talking about her father-in-law being bent over all the time.
The fact that he never complained endeared him to all of us and made us respect him so much. Yet, there were others we knew who maybe didn't suffer as much as he did, but their whole world was their suffering, and that's all they talked about. After a while you become immune to their conversation because you start to lose respect for them. You get bored with it. It's odd, but that's the truth. You don't want to take them out and you don't want to spend time with them because you can't do anything about their pain and all you can do is listen.
Very interesting, this admiration for not complaining. We have often commented that the Pattersons spend very little time with Grandpa Jim and even less time helping out Iris; but could this be Lynn Johnston’s method of saying, “Iris (and people like you), if you would stop complaining so much, you would get more help and attention.”?
Talking about her dad taking care of her mom.
But he also hid from us that he had lung cancer. He knew he was very ill; he couldn't breathe, he couldn't sleep lying down because his lungs would fill with water. He hid that from us, and himself perhaps, because he wanted to stay healthy and aware for her. He wanted to be constantly vigilant.
This is an interesting story. A quick internet search shows me that the standard method of treating lungs filling with water is to remove the water via a surgery. So it appears this did not happen because Lynn’s dad didn’t let anyone know he was having this problem; so they could not insist on his getting the surgery and take him out of action, so to speak. It also says that Lynn’s father did not trust anyone else to be constantly vigilant for his wife other than him. I would ask some follow-up questions about this, but the interviewer apparently does not, since his next question is:
CT: Do you think most people realize the effect caregiving has on the entirety of the family?
And now for my favourite question:
CT: How involved was your husband in caring for his dad?
LJ: When it came to looking after his dad, I took that responsibility.
That’s as close you get to a Rod Johnston slam in this article, and I note that Lynn does not correct the interviewer by saying “ex-husband.” Congratulations to Lynn Johnston for not mentioning the divorce and of course, Charles Schulz. This is her best interview in a long time.
I took it upon myself to spend the time with Tom. I loved him. He was a joy to be with. I admired him for his ability to endure the illness without complaint.
This is really the theme for this article, to be ill or to care for someone who is ill, without complaining about it and annoying other people. Shut up and be sick?
Talking about niece Stephanie and Shannon Lake
But if it hadn't been for Stephanie, the character [Shannon] would never have happened. I would never have had the permission to do it. Unless you know someone who can tell you his or her story, you really can't write about it.
This should be the theme for Lynn Johnston’s writing.
It's expensive to bring in a trained helper to do these things. But I think that expense is essential. You shouldn't think about it as an expense but as an essential. One person cannot do it all without losing some of their own quality of life, if not all of it.
I thought that in Ontario, the government paid for caregivers, so I wonder if she is talking about people to supplement those government-paid givers.
posted by howard at 6:03 PM
5 Comments:
Although this is far from the focus of your post (a very thoughtful one by the way) and article, if "lungs [filling] up with water" refers to pulmonary edema, the standard treatment would be medical using diuretics.
A pleural effusion, on the other hand, may be treated with a thoracentesis, which is a procedure that can be done at the bedside.
I always get the strangest feeling when I read or listen to Lynn's interviews that about 80% of what she says is fabrication or at least expanding on the truth.
How the heck do you hide lung cancer? I've never yet seen a case that didn't quickly ravage a person if it was inoperable.
And I wonder if Lynn ever LIVES life; she seems to always put herself at a distance and tries to be "the narrator" voice without expressing any emotion or sense of attachment.
Anonymous,
Thanks for the information on how to treat lungs filling up with water. Clearly my quick internet search was too quick. It sounds like Lynn’s dad had something entirely treatable and was not seeking treatment for fear of what the treatment might be, which is a sad story.
debjyn,
I always get the strangest feeling when I read or listen to Lynn's interviews that about 80% of what she says is fabrication or at least expanding on the truth.
I will have to agree with you there. The podcast interview where she changed the story about her son Aaron taking pictures of a car accident to her son Aaron taking pictures of someone who hanged themselves is a pretty good example of a fabrication, since both stories can’t be right.
How the heck do you hide lung cancer? I've never yet seen a case that didn't quickly ravage a person if it was inoperable.
I think a possible answer to this one lies in the interview part I did not quote; but I will now:
For my mom, my father was the caregiver. My mom and dad lived in British Columbia and I was living in Ontario, so I went there as much as I could. Really, it was not possible for me to be a caregiver to my mom.
Hiding lung cancer can probably be done if the person from whom you are hiding it is not around very often. Lynn has said in other interviews how she did not like her mother very much, so between the distance and the dislike, there was a strong motivation for her not to be around.
howtheduck:
It's clear why John and Elly praise Iris for not complaining so much, isn't it? Lynn's ideal soltion to this sort of thing is for people to insist on helping those who are too proud to ask so we can probably look forward to Elly's muscular generosity as expressed by getting them into assisted living post hates.
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