Guardian columnist Dina Rabinovitch dies
October 30, 2007 3:38 PM   Subscribe

"There is no template for the way I am living now. There has always been a plethora of instructions before...No matter what the life change, these days there's a how-to book, a lifestyle column in a Sunday magazine; none of that mid-century fumbling in the dark like Ian McEwan's honeymooners on Chesil Beach. Except for right here, at the front line of breast cancer. Nobody has written the manual yet." Dina Rabinovitch lost her long-running battle with cancer today.
posted by fay (14 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
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I read the first-linked article last week when it appeared in the Guardian. I found it very harrowing - it was clear she was quite close to death, and her anger leapt off the page. Also when she pointed out things like the fact her young son had stopped, more or less, asking if she was going to get better...it was just heartbreaking.

I watched a friend die from cancer this summer. Some people don't go to any 'resigned acceptance' phase. They keep fighting, and they get angry. Most of all, they keep on living- really living, until they're actually dead. Dina Rabinovitch's journalism is valuable because she's telling you about that experience from the inside. If I was a bystander in that drama again, I would want to have read this stuff.
posted by tiny crocodile at 3:55 PM on October 30, 2007


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posted by gnutron at 4:00 PM on October 30, 2007


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posted by GrammarMoses at 4:42 PM on October 30, 2007


I'm so very sorry for her little boy.
posted by thehmsbeagle at 5:02 PM on October 30, 2007


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posted by amberglow at 6:10 PM on October 30, 2007


Nothing makes me sad like recent blog posts from dead people. Whether MRSA or breast cancer.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 6:36 PM on October 30, 2007


"There is no template..."

Gilda Radner had a different kind of cancer, but it's always something. If it's not breast cancer, it's ovarian cancer. If it's not ovarian cancer, it's a piano falling on your head. Some would argue that Gilda Radner wrote the book on how to cope. At least, she was courageous enough to share with the world how she coped.

"When I got there, a night nurse, whom I still want to thank, had washed Gilda and taken out all the tubes. She put a pretty yellow barrette in her hair. She looked like an angel. So peaceful. She was still alive, and as she lay there, I kissed her. But then her breathing became irregular, and there were long gaps and little gasps. Two hours after I arrived, Gilda was gone. While she was conscious, I never said goodbye." - Gene Wilder

"It's never sudden. It's always sudden." - Joss Whedon
posted by ZachsMind at 6:51 PM on October 30, 2007


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posted by ZachsMind at 6:52 PM on October 30, 2007


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tears
posted by archaic at 7:07 PM on October 30, 2007


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cry
posted by Peecabu at 8:50 PM on October 30, 2007


"He doesn't automatically call mum any more, he calls for dad. There is a new bedtime routine - backgammon with dad, instead of a story with mum."

This rang horribly true for me, and I wish so much that it would never have to be written.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 9:03 PM on October 30, 2007


44 is very young and I am so sorry for her and her family.
posted by bluesky43 at 6:11 AM on October 31, 2007


That was a depressing article. I am reminded of my cousin, though she never seemed so angry about the way things went. She was much younger, but didn't have children. That might have something to do with it.

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posted by chunking express at 6:38 AM on October 31, 2007


I wasn't familiar with her or her work. Thank you for posting this. I'm kind of glad she was angry!! I'm angry for her.

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posted by Salamandrous at 7:56 AM on November 4, 2007


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