Readers Digest

Cover Story

the rights of conservation. As a result, they were recycling, too. We went out
there was community marginalization, and captured them. Today, we talk
yes, but we were also dislodging these about making marine protected areas,
communities without incorporating but the pressure is already unrealisti-
their knowledge system into our formal cally high.
methods of forest conservation.
I have a solution. We know the
One of our biggest challenges today oceans cover 70 per cent of the earth’s
is the commercial exploitation of the surface, but what isn’t well know is
forest, the continual diversion of frag- that 70 per cent of that 70 per cent—
ile, vulnerable lands towards the use roughly 50 per cent of the earth’s sur-
of commercial and industrial devel- face—are ocean deserts or subtropical
opments. As citizens, we need to sign gyres. These exist on both north and
up for more sensitization programmes south of the equator. We’re not doing
that are being run by environmental or- anything with them, because these are
ganizations. They tell us why we need at the end stages in the normal suc-
forests, and also why we need to value cession of life in the ocean. I propose
community knowledge in our conserva- that we go to the subtropical gyres and
tion efforts. Together, we must make a establish fields over there by irrigating
collective plea to the government—the them. The pipes we use will be made
unilateral approach of western scien- out of seaweed, and with seaweed will
tific conservation is not a one-size-fits- come seafood—fish, mussels, etc. Also,
all landscape. We need multiple forms because of its organic composition
of knowledge, more participation. and strength, seaweed is a better alter-
native to plastic.
AN OCEANIC
AGRICULTURAL Upwelling deep, nutrient-rich water
REVOLUTION can be a nature-based solution for en-
suring global food security, producing
Dr Victor Shahed raw materials and carrying out massive
Smetacek, Professor carbon sequestration. But meanwhile it
of Bio-Oceanography, is important that we do our level best
Alfred Wegener Institute to reduce our CO2 footprint. We should
already have embraced recycling and
We are over-exploit- sustainability. There is, for instance,
ing the ocean, and the seas are all over- one mindset that says we shouldn’t
crowded now. Also, since we’ve taken remove our garbage from the oceans
out all the big animals, ocean ecosys- because that will encourage people to
tems have collapsed. Big marine ani- create yet more garbage. We have to
mals, including large swamp fish, were move away from these arguments and
instrumental in maintaining productiv- find newer ways of thinking.
ity and structuring ecosystems because

readersdigest.in 49

Reader’s Digest
50 july 2021

HEALTH

QUIETING

Overlapping crises have made many of us
jumpy. But how do you know when you
have slipped into a more serious
problem and need help?

BY Rebecca Philps

hand lettering by maria amador FIVE YEARS AGO, Meredith Arthur, a what’s wrong. You have generalized
45-year-old San Francisco resident anxiety disorder.’”
and an employee of the social
media company Pinterest, arrived For Arthur, the diagnosis was a
at a neurologist appointment in a shock. She had been so focused on
distraught state. She spoke a mile her debilitating physical symptoms
a minute, rattling through her that she hadn’t considered that they
extensive research on the vagus could be linked to her mental health.
cranial nerve and explaining why Almost immediately, it clicked.
she thought it might hold clues to
her crippling shoulder and neck “My brain was always in overdrive,”
pain, frequent dizziness, nausea and Arthur recalls. “I wanted to work all
chronic migraines. “I was presenting the time and solve everything.”
my inexpert case to an expert,
who stopped me and said, ‘I know She would never have described
herself as a worrier, however,
and certainly didn’t connect her
perfectionism to anxiety or its effect

ILLUSTRATIONS BY Pete Ryan readersdigest.in 51

Reader’s Digest

on her body. But, in fact, physical a clinical psychologist and the author
discomfort—not distressing thoughts— of Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss. “We
is most often what drives people with anticipate that something bad will hap-
anxiety to seek treatment. pen. Maybe we have evidence. Maybe
we don’t. But we have a belief that
“The diagnosis changed everything,” something catastrophic might occur.”
says Arthur. “It’s like somebody picked
me up off the earth, turned me around Almost immediately, Minden says,
180 degrees, and put me back down. your sympathetic nervous system,
It was the same world, but everything which controls involuntary processes
looked a little different.” such as breathing and heart rate, kicks
into high gear. This leads your adre-
Arthur is one of the millions of nal glands to release adrenaline and
adults who experience an anxiety cortisol, two of the crucial hormones
disorder—the most common form that drive your body’s fight-freeze-
of mental illness—every year. But flight response and prompt anxiety’s
anxiety touches everyone to varying physical symptoms. Your heart races,
degrees. Typically, it’s intermittent your blood pressure rises, your pupils
and brought on by a stressful or dilate, you get short of breath and you
traumatic event. Its core features are break out in a clammy sweat.
excessive fear and worry, and one
of the major underlying factors is a Meanwhile, cortisol curbs func-
feeling of uncertainty about situations tions that your brain considers non-
that occur in daily life. essential: It alters immune system
responses and suppresses the diges-
These are exceedingly uncertain tive system, the reproductive system
times due to the combination of eco- and growth processes. This was help-
nomic precariousness, social unrest, ful for our ancestors trying to outrun
environmental catastrophes and the saber-toothed tigers but is not so
COVID-19 pandemic. Managing anxi- much when you can’t stop ruminating
ety will ensure it doesn’t rule your life. about whether you might have caught
COVID-19 when the guy behind you
How Chronic Anxiety in line at the grocery store coughed.
Harms the Body
For Arthur, chronic physical pain
Anxiety is part of your body’s stress- and discomfort were the most pow-
response system, and it can be un- erful manifestations of her disorder,
comfortable, overwhelming and but anxiety can show itself in many
sometimes plain confusing. ways. You might perceive something
as threatening even when it isn’t or go
“I describe anxiety as a future- ori- to great lengths to avoid uncomfort-
ented emotional response to a per- able situations. You might constantly
ceived threat,” says Joel Minden, PhD,

52 july 2021

Health

overthink plans or spend all of your Treat Anxious Feelings
time creating solutions to worst-case When They Persist
scenarios. Maybe you feel indecisive
and fear making the wrong decision. Despite the fact that chronic anxiety
Or you might find yourself restless, is very manageable with some
keyed up, and unable to relax. combination of medication, therapy,
and lifestyle adjustments, only about
Often, those symptoms last only as 37 per cent of affected people receive
long as certain situations are pres- treatment of any kind. The rest try
ent. (You may feel nervous about fly- to battle their anxiety from within or
ing, but you do it and the feeling fades suppress it.
when the wheels touch down.) Other
times, anxiety can tip into becoming “People spend too much time
a chronic anxiety disorder such as and effort trying to control anxiety,”
generalized anxiety disorder, panic says Minden. “I encourage them to
disorder, social anxiety disorder, remember that anxiety is a normal
obsessive-compulsive disorder, post- emotional response.” If you try to
traumatic stress disorder or a phobia. banish it, he adds, all you’re doing
is putting it more at the forefront of
The distinction between circum- your mind.
stantial or temporary anxiety and a
more severe case isn’t always easy to Here are some tips to help minimize
make, says clinical psychologist David anxiety’s negative effects:
Carbonell, PhD, founder of the Anxi-
ety Treatment Center in Chicago. 1. Accept it

“There isn’t a blood test for anxiety. If you accept anxiety as part of life and
At some point, everybody experiences part of everyone’s lived experience,
it,” he says. “It becomes a disorder you can learn to relate to it with self-
when it interferes with your beha- compassion and even with humour.
vioural choices and your ability to do This is a cornerstone of acceptance
as you wish in life.” and commitment therapy (ACT),
which has been gaining clinical
That point could be when your validation, including by the American
job requires you to fly but you’re too Psychological Association.
anxious to make it even as far as the
airport, which ultimately puts your ACT guides people to see their
livelihood in jeopardy. More gener- unpleasant emotions as just feelings
ally, you may find that anxious feel- and to accept that parts of life are
ings last even after a problem has hard. Practitioners encourage patients
been resolved and that those feelings to begin a dialogue with anxious
seem to arise from one situation to thoughts, examining the causes of
the next without relief. those feelings while also keeping in

readersdigest.in 53

Reader’s Digest

mind their personal goals and values. ‘thinking brain’ could then take over
Although anxious thoughts shouldn’t from her immediate fight-freeze-flight
be completely suppressed, sufferers reaction to an anxious moment.
can be trained to not allow anxiety to
turn them away from what they want Over time, her symptoms became
to do and who they want to be. less acute and troublesome. She
pictured the hormones hitting her
2. Be curious about it body the same way an ocean wave
hits the beach. The beach can’t
Along with acceptance, a mindfulness fight the wave, but it remains steady
approach to anxiety can be useful, and allows the wave to wash over it
especially when you’re cycling and fall back.
through anxious thoughts and unable
to think clearly or rationally. 3. Make lifestyle adjustments

In his book Unwinding Anxiety, Learning to live with anxiety is an
psychiatrist and neuroscientist Judson individual process that requires trial
Brewer, MD, recommends paying and error to get just right. While
attention to the body sensations, acceptance is the first and most
thoughts and emotions that come as important step, some lifestyle changes
a result of feeling anxious or worried. have been proved to take the edge
When we notice and name the off as well.
physical sensations that are arising in
our bodies (“my face feels flushed”; Since fatigue and increased stress
“my breathing is shallow”; “my heart leave us more vulnerable to anxiety,
is beating quickly”), we are already a well-balanced diet, adequate rest
less caught up in those anxious and, above all, exercise can help
reactions, simply through that act of us manage it better. One research
observation, writes Brewer. study showed that regular vigorous
workouts reduced the likelihood of
Many mindfulness training apps developing an anxiety disorder over
can help, including one, also called the next five years by 25 per cent.
Unwinding Anxiety, that Brewer
developed in his lab at Brown Arthur also shares her experiences
University. After three months of on the website medium.com. Openly
using the app, test participants discussing her anxiety has
reported an average 57 per cent transformed her relationship with it.
reduction in their anxiety. “I’m learning to live in harmony, as
much as possible, with this thing that
Understanding exactly what was is a part of me,” she says. “It’s not
happening inside her body and always pleasant, but I accept and,
bringing her awareness to it was a to the extent that I can, take care
great tool for Arthur because her of my anxiety.”

54 july 2021

Reader’s Digest

AS KIDS SEE IT

“We had to read Great Expectations in English class. Honestly, I thought it would be a lot better.”

My five-year-old nephew problem?” I asked. imaginary bakery. “Steak
came home after a fight “Well,” he replied, “I and mushrooms,” I said.
with his friend swearing forgave him. Now I’m
never to talk to him trying to forget him.” She replied, “Okay, but
again. “Forgive and for- —Naman Ravi Argekar, it’s going to be purple!”
get.” I told him, “that’s Udupi —Jon Dore, comedian
what I do when my
friends hurt me.” We met I live with a seven- Reader’s Digest will pay CONAN DE VRIES
the boy a few days later, year-old. She asked for your funny anecdote
and the two ignored me what kind of pie or photo in any of our
each other. “What’s the I wanted from her humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
email: [email protected]

readersdigest.co.in 55

“You’re more than just a patient to me, Mrs Melnik.
You’re a potential medical journal article.”

LIFE’S money tight, I told Scene: A morning
him not to bother with my six-year-old
Like That getting me a gift. In- granddaughter, Emma
stead, I asked that he
Every year for my handwrite a beautiful Me: Would you like
birthday, my husband letter encapsulating bacon and eggs for
buys me a particular our 25 years together. breakfast?
perfume that has a Emma: I only like eggs
delicate floral scent My husband leaned when they’re mixed
that I especially love. in, gently took my with something.
hand, and begged, Me: Like omelettes?
This past year, with “Can I please just Emma: No, like
buy you a bottle brownies.
56 july 2021 of perfume?” —Elizabeth Cooper
—Lisa Collins

Cartoon by Harley Schwadron

Reader’s Digest

My mutant superpower is I can open LET’S SLEEP ON IT
any snack’s packaging the wrong way (IF WE CAN)
so it’s impossible to close it again.
Ê My husband rolled
— @aparnapkin over and open-mouth
snored directly into my
Spotted on the back hair commits a crime eyes last night if you’re
of an Amish horse- and leaves hair at the wondering how we keep
drawn carriage in crime scene, will her the magic alive.
Pennsylvania, this DNA be found all over — @Maryfairyboberry
handwritten sign: the crime scene and
“Energy efficient thus incriminate her? Ê My wife is napping,
vehicle: Runs on oats She’s 12. and I have to sneeze.
and grass. Caution: Do — @PhilNobileJr This is not going to
not step in exhaust.” end well for me.
—Wilson Frampton While doing volun-
teer work, I began — @RodLacroix
My favourite species to sing a favourite
of birds are the ones song of mine to Ê Sleeping under
named by people who pass the time. separate blankets should
clearly hate birds. Another volunteer have been the marriage
Ê Drab seedeater perked his ears. advice everybody gave me
Ê Goaway bird a year and a half ago.
Ê Rough-faced shag “Who sings that?”
Ê Common loon he asked. — @iSmashFizzle
Ê Sad flycatcher
Ê Little bustard “The Traveling Ê It’s funny that my
Ê Perplexing Wilburys,” I replied. wife thinks I have a
‘side’ of the bed. I think
scrub wren He nodded. “Well, she means my ‘sliver’
Ê Satanic nightjar let’s keep it that way.” of bed I’ve been allotted.
Ê Monotonous lark —Christopher
— @stu_bot3000 Thorsen — @Cheeseboy22

cintascotch/getty images My niece wants to Reader’s Digest will pay
know: If she donates for your funny anecdote
her hair, and the or photo in any of our
recipient of her humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
email: [email protected]

readersdigest.in 57

KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

MAN

ON THE RANN

Lost amidst the vast, salty marshlands of Kutch,
one woman must choose between confronting the

elements or trusting the unknown

By Sunanda Satwah
Illustration By Siddhant Jumde

Some time ago, as I sat clearing accompanying us on the trip, which
out my wardrobe, out tumbled was designed to introduce them to the
an ajrakh scarf. As my fin- architectural heritage of Bhuj. After
gers ran through the soft folds, a delightful afternoon in Gandhi nu
memories of its strange origins Gam village, we set out for the Rann.
came flooding back—an evening in the The Rann of Kutch, a massive, stunning
middle of a desert and an experience expanse of salty marshlands stretching
that has since reminded me of the im- across 18,000 square kilometres, shares
portant, life-saving, nature of an ordi- vast stretches with Sindh, in Pakistan.
nary sense of compassion and faith in As a politically sensitive area, there were
human decency. This is the story. certain rules to follow. We reached the
Border Security Forces (BSF) checkpost
In October 2019, I was a profes- at 5 p.m. and were allowed entry into
sor of architecture visiting Gujarat as the shwet rann (white desert). A straight,
part of an academic programme. I narrow road led our bus four kilometres
was to play chaperone to the students

58 july 2021

Reader’s Digest
readersdigest.in 59

Reader’s Digest

into the desert to the designated drop- back to the bus before dark. A few cars
off point, marked by a watchtower with passed by, their occupants casting curi-
a viewing deck. It was my first time see- ous glances at me. I was beginning to
ing this unique terrain—a desert that is get anxious and quickened my pace.
arid for eight months and submerged Just then a man riding a motorcycle
under water for the rest of the year—and drove past, going in the opposite direc-
its sheer beauty took my breath away. tion, towards the BSF checkpoint. He
stopped his bike and hollered, asking
The students alighted from the bus, if I needed any help.
eager to make most of the next couple of
hours—wear colourful kutchi turbans, MY HEAD THROBBED
buy souvenirs, go on camel rides, click FROM MOUNTING
selfies. I hung back cocking a hawk’s eye WORRY—I HADN’T
on where each of them was headed. Af-
ter a while, convinced that they were all INFORMED ANYONE IN
reasonably safe and banded together in MY GROUP ABOUT MY
groups, I decided to explore the desert
myself. Most of the visitors were con- IMPROMPTU TREK.
gregated around the drop-off point. I
like taking long walks and decided to “No thank you, I’m good.” I replied
indulge myself with a stroll along the with a wave. He nodded and rode away.
road that brought us here. I set off, soon
putting quite a bit of distance between In truth, I was nowhere near ‘good’.
me and the cacophony of giggling tour- I had been walking for over an hour in
ists, and savoured the exquisite silence a dry, unfamiliar climate. My head was
that one can only experience in a desert. throbbing by now, partly, I suspected,
from dehydration, but also by mount-
The stretch was bereft of people, ing worry—I hadn’t informed anyone
and the only discernible sounds came in my group about my impromptu trek
from the crunching of the salty sand and the area had no phone network!
under my sneakers and the occasional I would have done well to follow the
click-clack of a passing horse’s hooves. basics I had parroted to my students:
I went into a serene, almost medita- Don’t venture out on your own, never
tive state, lost in thought. As the white leave the group without informing
landscape began to blush into shades someone—and here I was. Aargh!
of pink, it suddenly struck me that I I could have kicked myself.
had lost track of how far I had walked,
and the sun had started it’s downward My anxiety began growing into full-
descent. I quickly turned around and blown panic when suddenly the man
started heading back. The day was fast on the motorcycle returned. He parked
settling into dusk, and I needed to get

60 july 2021

Kindness of Strangers

his bike next to me, and ventured, “Let he was trying to put me at ease. Not
me give you a ride to the watchtower,” wanting to be rude, I told him about my
he said, pointing to it in the distance. students and that we were visiting from
My heart began to drum in my ears. “It Mumbai. Before long, we had reached
becomes dark quickly in this region, the deck and the sun had set. I could
and it could get dangerous to walk barely make out my students from their
alone,” he added. silhouettes in the dim twilight. Back on
safe ground, I clambered off the bike
The man looked to be in his late and thanked him, awkward about my
fifties and wore the traditional attire of earlier misgivings. Feeling the need to
the region—white cotton kurta–pyja- say something, I pointed to the scarf
mas, leather jootis and a crimson scarf around his neck and said, “That is a
around his neck. His face was leath- beautiful ajrakh.” Ajrakh is a style of
ery from too much sun. Rheumy eyes colourful block-printing on cloth, done
looked into mine, waiting for an answer. by hand using natural dyes such as in-
digo and madder. This textile is indi-
Wary of strangers offering free rides, genous to the nomadic pastoral Muslim
and fed on too many stories of hitch- communities in Kutch and Marwar.
hiking gone wrong, I was certain I
should decline his offer. Dark thoughts The next moment, he pulled off the
about all the things that could go wrong scarf from around his neck and ex-
went into overdrive, but I couldn’t fault tended it towards me, “Take it.” Taken
his reasoning. There were no street aback, I refused, but he insisted.
lamps; I could stumble on the road or “I would like you to have it as a mem-
be hit by a passing vehicle full of ram- ory of this evening in the shwet rann.”
bunctious tourists. I didn’t think my stu- Moved by his earnestness and not want-
dents disliked me enough to hit me with ing to hurt his feelings, I accepted.
the bus, but, why take a chance?
After all the students had boarded the
On the other hand, we were on a bus, I spotted him in the distance and
straight road with clear visibility, head- waved goodbye. He strode over and
ing towards a small crowd, some of said, “Now that you are safely with your
whom were on the viewing deck, hope- group, I will take your leave,” and then
fully with binoculars in hand. The ride he rode off, merging into the darkness.
should take no more than a couple of
minutes. I accepted his offer, reciting a I made my own way home from
silent prayer as I climbed on to the pil- Kutch, emerging from the desert with
lion of his bike. memories of not only an awe-inspiring
terrain but also of a fellow human be-
We drove at a steady pace, as he made ing who reinforced my faith in kindness;
small talk about his wife and son. He memories just as beautiful and soft like
didn’t ask any questions, but kept up the ajrakh scarf I held in my hand.
a steady stream of chatter. I could tell

readersdigest.in 61

Reader’s Digest
62 july 2021

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

RESCUE ON

THE HIGH RISE

BRIDGE

With his truck dangling 70 feet above a roiling river
and a storm whipping 80-kph winds, a trapped
driver’s only hope is a team of trained emergency
rescuers—who are stuck in traffic

By Anita Bartholomew

ILLUSTRATIONS by Steven P. Hughes readersdigest.in 63

Reader’s Digest

The winds this April morning were giving Wayne Boone’s
massive 2007 Freightliner tractor trailer a good lashing. A
driver for Butler Paper Recycling in Suffolk, Virginia, Boone
steered the empty 18-wheeler up a stretch of Interstate 64
in Chesapeake toward Virginia Beach, about 40 kms away,
where he would pick up his first load of the day.

The 53-year-old driver pulled into struggled to regain control. His empty
the eastbound left lane of the G.A. trailer, meanwhile, jackknifed to
Treakle Memorial Bridge, known to the left, skidding sideways at an angle
locals simply as the I-64 High Rise, a to the cab.
four-lane drawbridge that traverses
the southern branch of the Elizabeth Fighting both truck and weather, the
River. On the span, the storm let loose steering wheel unresponsive, Boone
its full force, finding no obstacles in was swept along about 200 feet, un-
its path but vehicles. Rain hammered able to get traction. Then a second
Boone’s windshield. Winds grew gust, raging more violently than the
fiercer. Boone slowed, letting first, blew through the open mesh
cars pass. It would be good to get to of the bridge’s steel grid. It slammed
the other side. into the driver’s side of the cab and
simultaneously shoved it upwards
At the bridge’s crest, 70 feet above from below, lifting the cab, with Boone
the rushing estuary, the concrete road inside, over the edge of the bridge be-
gives way to steel decking. Even in fore dropping it again.
perfect weather it’s easy to lose trac-
tion on the grids. Boone’s front wheels If he had had any hope of survival
met the slick steel just as a powerful before, it was gone. The cab was now
gust blasted the driver’s side. aimed straight down toward the grey-
black water.
To Boone, it felt as if the wind lifted
his truck clear off the surface. He Lieutenant Chad Little, 49, of the
could swear that he was floating for a Chesapeake Fire Department, was
second before being dumped into the on his way to conduct a CPR training
right lane. He had no time to consider class when an odd message popped
how such a thing could be possible. up on his SUV’s touchscreen: “Truck
His cab barreled into the guardrail on hanging over the bridge.” He was only
the far right edge, mangling the metal a minute or two away. He flicked on
barrier that protected his truck from his emergency lights and siren and
pitching into the water below. He sped to the High Rise.

64 july 2021

Drama In Real Life

The traffic on the bridge was im- in case something—or someone—
passable. Little got as far as the draw- should fall.
bridge’s grid and no farther. When he
stepped outside, the wind blasted him. Meanwhile, a bystander had tossed
He tucked in his chin, walked ahead a rigging strap and the kind of harness
about 65 metres, and radioed in his a roofer would wear over the edge of
assessment. The front cab of a tractor the bridge to the driver. Police officers
trailer had gone over the High Rise, and civilians stood in a line holding
leaving its trailer still on the bridge. the rope as if they were in a one-sided
The heavy steel frame between the tug-of-war. Little appreciated that
cab and the fifth wheel, where the cab they wanted to help, but he explained
couples with the trailer, had literally that if they pulled the driver out of the
truck without the proper equipment,
WHATEVER HELD he was likely to tumble to his death.
THE CAB ON THE Once Rescue 15 got there, the team
BRIDGE, BOONE KNEW members would anchor their special-
IT COULDN’T LAST. ized equipment for a complex rope
rescue before trying to move him.
folded, and the cab, bent at a 90-degree
angle, dangled over the river. Engine, The first ladder truck arrived from
hood and fuel tanks had already fallen, the westbound side of the bridge,
leaving a slick on the water. The driver where traffic was still able to move.
was trapped in the cab, hanging 10 feet Running chains over the concrete bar-
below the roadbed. rier that separated the east- and west-
bound lanes, firefighters anchored
“This will be a complex technical their truck to the cab’s back wheels.
rescue incident,” Little reported. That
meant calling in Rescue 15, a team of Wayne Boone, the driver, knew he
highly trained firefighter–emergency should be dead. Busting through the
medical technicians who respond guardrail and then literally flying
when the unthinkable happens: an through the air before nose-diving
earthquake, a building collapse, a towards the river—it had all hap-
bombing or some other disaster. He pened so fast. How was he still alive?
then switched to another channel Somehow, the back of his cab had
to request the largest fireboat in the snagged on the bridge’s edge before
region. Working over the water in it could complete its descent. Still
this weather, he needed assets below strapped into his seat, he dangled at
a 90-degree angle above the rushing
Elizabeth River, swinging with each
new gust. Whatever the force was that
held the cab on the edge, he knew it

readersdigest.in 65

Reader’s Digest

couldn’t last. Gravity and wind would seats and wedged himself back as far
have their say. as he could behind the driver’s seat.
He had only inches of space; it would
Sticky red blood spilled into his have to do.
eyes. He was injured, but his body had
yet to fully register the pain. He forced Minutes passed—to Boone, it felt
himself to focus. If he had any chance like hours—before he heard the ap-
of escaping the cab and surviving, he proaching sirens. To his ears, the
had to get free from his seat belt. The jarring wail could have been angels
position of the cab gave little room to singing. Somewhere in the cab, his
manoeuver. The cracked windshield phone rang. He would have given
beneath him exposed the loom- anything for the comfort of another
ing dark waters below. If he put any human voice, but though he reached
weight on the glass, he risked breaking around, searching as well as he could
through and falling the rest of the way. from the cramped position, the ring-
Under the howl of the wind, he heard ing’s source eluded him.
voices from above. “It’s about to go!”
From the bridge above, an onlooker
EACH TIME HIS FEET tossed him a harness. Boone reached
MET THE WINDSHIELD, out his open driver’s side window and
pulled it inside the cab. That effort
THE GLASS GAVE was all he could manage. Disoriented
A LITTLE MORE. and weak, he could not figure out how
to get it on his body.

Got to get free. The call came in to Rescue 15 at
Releasing his seat belt, Boone tried 8:43 a.m. The trio on duty at that
to hang on to the seat, but he imme- time—Brad Gregory, 57; Justin Beaz-
diately slid into the windshield. The ley, 25; and Mark Poag, 43—piled
glass shifted in its frame. He scram- into the rescue truck that carried all
bled upwards, doing his best to grab their extrication gear and headed to
pieces of the shattered dashboard, the scene, running through various
aware that he was getting cut along rescue scenarios to figure out what
the way. He slipped again. And again. ropes they would need and where
Each time his feet met the windshield, they should position the equipment.
the glass gave a little more. The next
time could be the last. Summoning all But their first challenge was more
his strength, straddling broken bits of mundane: the sea of red brake lights
truck, he pulled himself between the that greeted them on the bridge. If
this were an ordinary road, vehicles
would have made way for a fire truck.
But because the bridge had, at most,

66 july 2021

a two-foot shoulder, to the skin. About a dozen bystanders
the cars had no- had left their cars, braving the storm’s
where to go. Beaz- fury to stand vigil at the bridge’s edge.
ley jumped down,
tapped on windows, Gregory, Poag, and the crew mem-
and got a few ve- bers of the ladder truck quickly de-
hicles to move in vised a plan: Beazley would rappel
order to let the res- down to the driver from the extended
cuers pass. As they ladder of one of the trucks, open the
inched forward, the door, and secure the driver to himself,
clock ticked on the and then the two would be lifted to
dangling trucker. safety. By now, sustained winds were
Traffic filled in be- approaching 80  kph, with stronger
hind them, cutting gusts. Working shoulder to shoulder,
off the possibility of
backing up and ap-
proaching from the
westbound lanes,
which police had
cleared. A couple of
hundred yards from
the accident, it was
clear they would get
no farther. Beazley
grabbed the har-
nesses, rope, and
some other gear off the top of the
rescue truck and hitched a ride on
Ladder 12, a fire truck headed to the
scene in the cleared westbound lane.

Poag and Gregory gathered the
rest of the equipment they expected
to need from their truck: more rope,
a pulley system called a set-of-fours
and a belay to anchor equipment to
at the scene. As they marched toward
the crippled tractor trailer, the wind
grew more intense. Rain and sleet bat-
tered them sideways, soaking through

readersdigest.in 67

Reader’s Digest

they had to shout to hear each other

above the howling gales.

Beazley walked to the bridge’s edge

and tried to process what he saw.

It was like no incident he’d ever re-

sponded to before. Spilled diesel fuel

soaked everything on the ground,

including their equipment. The cab

appeared to be barely holding on.

Getting into his harness, Beazley

checked the rope and rigging. He

would be tied in with an elevated an-

chor to prevent him from falling into

the river should anything go wrong.

The ladder operator positioned the

fire truck’s extended ladder over the Of saving the incapacitated truck’s driver,
top of the crippled tractor trailer Beazley told Virginia’s WTKR television
and then set it in place. Ordinarily, station, “It all happened so quick. You

firefighters would not raise a ladder train for this, but you just never expect it.”

in such high winds. It could shake

the truck and wear out the metal. In downwards pressure on the vehicle.

theory, the wind could even blow the Any rescue attempt would have to be

fire truck over. But this was as far from via the window.

ordinarily as it got. The driver, Beazley realized, was in

Poag and another firefighter had shock. After dangling in the wind for

command of the pulley system at- an hour, waiting to die, he was spent.

tached to the ladder. Beazley, in his But the relief in his eyes at seeing

harness, was fastened at the other Beazley was evident. “My name’s Jus-

end. Working the pulleys, they lifted tin,” Beazley shouted. “What’s yours?”

Beazley over the bridge’s edge, Boone replied, but Beazley barely photo: courtesy wtkr - norfolk

manoeuvered him above the cab, and heard him. “We’re going to get you out

slowly lowered him. of here,” he said. He handed the har-

As he rappelled towards the truck ness through the open window and

driver, the wind tossed Beazley like gave Boone step-by-step instructions

a pinball. He grabbed on to the cab for getting into it while he continued

to avoid being blown into the bridge. to grip the cab’s side.

He’d planned to open the door to Boone fumbled with the apparatus.

extricate the driver, but now he saw He was trying to do as Beazley in-

that such a move risked putting more structed but was clearly too dazed to

68 july 2021

Drama In Real Life

assist in his own extraction. The wind, side of Boone’s empty trailer into the
meanwhile, wanted to blast Beazley air and shoved it half a lane across the
off the cab’s door. The rescue became roadway, prompting the firefighters to
more precarious by the second as 80- evacuate the area.
to- 95-kph gusts lashed at both the
cab and the rescuer. Beazley realized Boone was taken to Norfolk Sentara
there was no time left. He would have General Hospital, having suffered lac-
to get inside the cab. erations and other injuries to his face,
neck, shoulder, and knees. The worst
Pulling his torso through the win- damage was to his right ear, which
dow, he worked quickly and methodi- was almost severed from his head
cally to get each of Boone’s arms and in the crash, but doctors were able
legs through the loops of the harness, to save it.
securing him to the rope system that
effectively tethered them to each Through it all, Boone had never
other. Beazley spoke reassuringly. panicked. He had accepted his fate.
“C’mon, you can do it,” he said as he He was ready to go if that’s what
grabbed the pulley and hoisted him- the man upstairs had in mind. But
self and the bloodied Boone through a stranger had risked his own life to
the window and fully into the whip- save him. Hearing people shout with
ping winds. Poag and a second fire- joy when they saw the firefighter
fighter worked the pulleys to haul deliver him to safety had been uplifting.
them back up. As driver and rescuer In a world that could sometimes seem
cleared the edge, cheers broke out mean and lonely, people still cared. His
from the crowd on the bridge. Three heart was awash in gratitude.
first responders bear-hugged both
men and pulled them back over the Back on the bridge, once Boone was
guardrail. It was over. on safe ground, Beazley had reached
out for a handshake. Naturally reticent
Paramedics bundled the injured and emotionally and physically
man into an ambulance, but the storm drained, Boone had taken his rescu-
wasn’t quite done. A gust rose up and, er’s hand and hoped the gesture
despite the securing chains, lifted one would say everything he couldn’t.

The Life Hack That Keeps on Giving

Enter a different birthday each time you sign up with a company online. This way,
instead of being flooded with celebratory discounts that you can’t take advantage

of all at once on your real birthday, you’ll get regular discounts throughout the
year. It’s totally harmless for you and the company, and it could even help
protect your identity if its database is hacked.

readersdigest.in 69

FASCINATING FACTS

That Changed
History

Altering the course of human events takes a
grand idea and careful execution—most of the time.
But at these fateful points, plans went out the window

By Jacopo della Quercia

create the microwave oven work. And he did it all without ever
having graduated from high school.
Percy Spencer was so fascinated by the
sinking of the Titanic that he became a After the war, Spencer worked for
scientist. He joined the Navy, trained Raytheon Manufacturing, a defence
as a radio electrician, and ultimately contractor. As he was walking near
became a civilian expert on radar dur- the radar equipment one day, he
ing World War II, earning the Distin- absentmindedly stuck his hand
guished Public Service Award for his in his shirt pocket—and found a
gooey mess. Spencer often carried a

70 july 2021 illustrations by Istvan Banyai

Reader’s Digest
readersdigest.in 71

Reader’s Digest

Mr Peanut candy bar to feed the determined to burn the manuscript
squirrels at lunch. He knew enough and, perhaps, his writing career.
about radar to suspect that its heat-
producing magnetron waves could While he was out cooling off, he
be the culprit, but he wasn’t sure. So bumped into his old college room-
he placed a bag of popcorn kernels mate, Mike McClintock, who hap-
in front of the machine—and they pened to edit children’s books at
popped. Then came a raw egg, which Vanguard Press. Geisel shared his
dutifully exploded all over a skeptical woes with McClintock, who asked to
colleague’s face. see the story. McClintock suggested a
few changes, and Vanguard published
Spencer fine-tuned his discovery
with Raytheon and marketed it to KING’S WIFE FOUND
airlines, railways, restaurants and THE ASH-COVERED
cruise liners as ‘the Radarange’—or,
as it’s known now, the microwave PAGES IN THE
oven. Fortunately, microwaves have WASTEPAPER BASKET.
come a long way since 1947, when
they stood nearly six feet tall, weighed the book in 1937 with a new title: And
340 kilos and cost $3,000. That’s to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry
roughly $35,000 (`25,97,656) today. Street. According to Geisel: “If I had
been walking down the other side of
Dr Seuss and Stephen Madison Avenue, I’d be in the dry-
King are rescued from cleaning business today.”
the ash can of history

Different though they may be, Stephen
King and Dr Seuss have two things in
common. They are both among the
most successful authors in history,
and they both narrowly escaped a life
of obscurity.

Theodor Geisel—the good doctor’s
given name—wrote his first children’s
book, A Story No One Can Beat, in the
mid-1930s. Working as an advertising
illustrator at the time, Geisel sent his
whimsical manuscript to 27 publish-
ers. They all rejected it. After the last
cold shoulder, Geisel stomped down
New York City’s Madison Avenue,

72 july 2021

Fascinating Facts

Stephen King’s first published book Angeles night in 1994. OJ Simpson—
was about a bullied teenage girl who football legend, rental car spokes-
discovers that she has fantastic mental person, Naked Gun co-star—was
powers, which she uses to get revenge accused of killing his wife, Nicole
on her tormentors. King’s worst critic Brown Simpson, and a local waiter,
wasn’t the publishers—it was himself. Ron Goldman, on the steps of Nicole’s
He disliked his story so much that posh home in Brentwood, California.
he threw it away after writing only The evidence against OJ would appear
three pages, according to his memoir to be damning, including blood in the
On Writing. A few hours later, his Bronco and on a glove that matched
wife found the pages crumpled and one found near Goldman’s body.
covered with cigarette ash in the ‘DNA evidence’ became a household
wastepaper basket. She took them term with the OJ Simpson trial, and it
out and started reading, and she was not his friend. Neither was a man
was hooked. “She wanted me to go named Kato Kaelin, who was living
on,” King later wrote. “She wanted to in OJ’s guesthouse and testified that
know the rest of the story.” And so he he could not account for OJ’s where-
went on. Carrie sold over a million abouts at the time of the murders.
paperback copies in its first year.
OJ Simpson’s team had plenty of its
A DA’s slip about a glove own angles to work. The trial unfolded
flips the trial of the just a few years after the Los Angeles
century riots, and the racial polarization of the
city was palpable. In fact, the defence
It was bound to be a case for the ages team took pains to label one of the
even before the suspect parked his LAPD officers investigating the case,
white Ford Bronco on that hot Los Mark Fuhrman, as having a history of
making racial statements.

Still, many observers believed OJ
would be convicted. And then the
prosecutor asked him to try on the
bloody glove found at the crime scene.
The image of OJ Simpson attempting
to squeeze his meaty hand into the
snug leather fingers became a defining
moment in the trial, as did the way
defence attorney Johnnie Cochran
described it in his now-historic closing
statement: “If it doesn’t fit, you must
acquit.” And the jury did.

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Reader’s Digest

A messy science lab Dr Fleming realized that the mould, a
harbours a miracle drug rare form of Penicillium notatum, had
secreted a ‘mould juice’ that killed
In the summer of 1928, Scottish several strands of deadly bacteria. Dr
physician Alexander Fleming was in Fleming published his remarkable
such a rush to go on vacation that he discovery—and almost no one noticed.
accidently left a stack of dirty petri
dishes in his laboratory sink. As if In fact, years later, Howard Walter
this weren’t already gross, the dishes Florey, an Australian pathologist,
were smeared with staphylococcus, found Fleming’s paper by accident
a bacterium that causes boils, sore while leafing through old medical
throats and food poisoning. (Let’s journals. Along with biochemist
hope the doctor at least washed his Ernst Boris Chain, Dr Florey began to
hands before he left.) explore the therapeutic effects of the
mould juice, and by 1941 they had
collected enough penicillin to use on
the first human subject, a 43-year-old
police officer suffering from a terminal
bacterial infection he’d contracted after
scratching himself on rosebushes in his

MOULD JUICE IS
PERHAPS THE MOST
UNLIKELY LIFESAVER

IN HISTORY.

When Dr Fleming returned weeks garden. The results were astounding:
later, he found something interest- The patient’s fever dropped and his
ing in the mess in his sink: One of the appetite returned, and the penicillin
petri dishes was dotted with bacteria used to treat him was hailed as a
everywhere except for where some wonder drug. Unfortunately, when
mould was growing. The area around supplies ran out, the officer’s infection
it was clear, as if protected by an un- returned and he died.
seen barrier. Upon closer inspection,
Still, Dr Fleming shared the Nobel
Prize with Dr Florey and Chain for
their work on the magic med. “I cer-
tainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all

74 july 2021

Fascinating Facts

medicine by discovering the world’s most any kind of fur or clothing. Since
first antibiotic,” he remarked, “but I de Mestral was no fan of zippers—
suppose that was exactly what I did.” they tended to freeze in the Alpine
winter—he spent the next 10 years try-
A dog gives the ing to duplicate the burs’ irresistible
world Velcro attraction to his hiking partner.

Swiss engineer George de Mes- ZIPPERS CAN
tral was a natural inventor. When he FREEZE IN THE COLD,
was 12, he designed and patented a BUT THESE ‘VELVET
toy airplane. As he got older, he con-
sidered nature the greatest inventor HOOKS’ WON’T.
on the planet, so he kept his eyes out
for naturally occurring phenomena After countless attempts and belly
science could imitate. That’s where rubs, de Mestral found the right
his faithful Irish pointer came in. material for his invention: nylon,
which was strong enough for the
After a day hiking in the Swiss hooks to hold but pliable enough to
mountains, de Mestral noticed that be separated with the right tug. De
his dog was covered with spiky Mestral submitted his patent in 1952,
burs, as were his own pants. He put and it was approved three years later.
the burs under the microscope and He named his invention Velcro, a
found tiny ‘hooks’ at the ends of their combination of velvet and crochet, the
bristles that seemingly latched on to French word for ‘hook’.

A note from Mum secures
women’s right to vote

The road to women’s suffrage in
the United States was long and dif-
ficult. After the passage of the 19th
Amendment in 1919, the measure
needed to be ratified by 36 states to
become law. By the summer of 1920,
the amendment’s advocates were one
state from victory. Unfortunately, al-
most all the southern states opposed
the amendment, and Tennessee was

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Reader’s Digest

poised to join them because of a 48– to “be a good boy” and support the
48 tie in its state legislature. measure. When Burn’s name was
called, he voted ‘aye’ in a voice that
A 24-year-old man named Harry was barely audible and yet shocking.
Burn, the youngest representative He later declared, “I believe we had
in the state, was expected to be a moral and legal right to ratify” the
among those to vote ‘nay’—he was amendment. He quickly fessed up to
even wearing a red rose in his lapel, his mother’s influence on his vote.
the symbol of the anti-suffragists. “I know that a mother’s advice is
However, on the morning of the always safest for her boy to follow,”
Tennessee roll call, Burn received he said, “and my mother wanted me
a letter from his mother, Phoebe to vote for ratification.”
‘Miss Febb’ Burn. She implored him

76 july 2021

Ping-Pong ball dents But Zhuang Zedong, the team’s
China’s Great Wall star player, stepped for ward to
shake Cowan’s hand. The two spoke
Glenn Cowan was practising for through an interpreter, and Zhuang
the 1971 World Table Tennis Champi- presented the American with a silk-
onships in Nagoya, Japan, one after- screen picture of China’s Huangshan
noon when he realized he was the only mountain range. Cowan, a self-
American in the room. He had missed described hippie, returned the gesture
the team bus back to the hotel! Un- the next day by giving Zhuang a
daunted, the 19-year-old Californian T-shirt featuring a peace symbol and
just hopped on to the shuttle with the the words ‘Let It Be’.
Chinese national team. Most of the
Chinese athletes watched the shaggy- After that spontaneous exchange
haired American with suspicion—the of goodwill was beamed around the
United States had broken diplomatic world, Chinese leader Mao Zedong
relations with China way back in 1949, invited the entire US team to visit. A
and the team had been forbidden to year later, President Richard Nixon
so much as speak to the Americans. made his own historic trip to Beijing.

There Otter Be a Law

Pennsylvania recently named an official state amphibian.
Even weirder than that: Its name is the eastern hellbender salamander.

Even weirder than that: Its common nickname is the snot otter.

NEW YORK TIMES

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Reader’s Digest

Thirty years after his
adoption, Izidor still

struggles with the
emotional scars of

his childhood.

78 july 2021

BONUS READ

Can an

Unloved
Child

LoveLearn to
The Ruckel family opened their
hearts to a boy from Romania’s former
‘child gulags’, but they weren’t prepared
for the challenge of raising him
By Melissa Fay Greene
from the atlantic

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Reader’s Digest

For his first three years of life, Izidor lived at
the hospital. The dark-eyed, black-haired boy, born
20 June 1980, had been abandoned when he was a
few weeks old. The reason was obvious: His right leg
was a bit deformed. After a bout of illness (probably
polio), he had been tossed into a sea of abandoned
infants in the Socialist Republic of Romania.

In films of the period document- Hospital for Irrecoverable Children.

ing orphan care there, you see nurses The cement fortress emitted no

like assembly-line workers swaddling sounds of children playing, though as

newborns with casual indifference and many as 500 lived inside at one time.

sticking each one at the end of a row Izidor was served nearly inedible,

of silent, worried-looking babies. The watered-down food at long tables

women don’t coo or sing to them. where naked children on benches

In his hospital, in the Southern banged their tin bowls. He grew up in

Carpathian mountain town of Sighetu overcrowded rooms where his fellow

Marmatiei, Izidor would have been fed orphans endlessly rocked, or punched

by a bottle propped against the crib themselves in the face or shrieked.

bars. Well past the age when children Izidor was destined to spend

begin tasting solid food, he and his age- the rest of his childhood in this

mates remained on their backs, sucking building. Odds were high that he

from bottles with widened openings would die in childhood, malnourished,

to allow the passage of a watery gruel. shivering, unloved.

Without proper care or physical

Ctherapy, the baby’s leg muscles wasted.ommunist dictator Nicolae
At three, he was deemed ‘deficient’ Ceausescu, who’d ruled Roma-
and transferred to a Camin Spital nia for 24 years, was executed

Pentru Copii Deficienti, a Home on Christmas Day 1989. The following

80 july 2021

year, the outside world discov-

ered his network of ‘child gulags’,

in which an estimated 1,70,000

abandoned infants, children and

teens were being raised.

Believing that a larger popu-

lation would beef up Romania’s

economy, Ceausescu had cur-

tailed contraception and abor-

tion, imposed tax penalties on

childless people and celebrated

women who gave birth to

10 or more children. Parents

who couldn’t handle another

baby might call their new arrival

“Ceausescu’s child,” as in “Let

him raise it.”

To house a generation of

unwanted or unaffordable

children, Ceausescu ordered Children abandoned in Communist-era Romania
the construction or conversion lived in horrendous conditions in facilities such
of hundreds of structures. At as this Home Hospital for Irrecoverable Children.

age three, abandoned children

were sorted. Future workers

Dwould get clothes, shoes, food and anny Ruckel, a computer pro-
grammer, and his wife, Marlys,
some schooling in case de copii— lived with their three young
‘children’s homes’—while ‘deficient’
children, even those with such daughters in San Diego in the early

treatable issues as crossed eyes 1990s. They thought it would be nice

or cleft lip, wouldn’t get much of to add a boy to the mix, and heard

anything in their Camin Spitale. about a local independent filmmaker,

After the Romanian revolution, John Upton, who was arranging adop-

photo by thomas szalay children in unspeakable conditions— tions of Romanian orphans. Marlys

skeletal, splashing in urine on the called and said they wanted to adopt

floor, caked with faeces—were a baby boy. “There’s thousands of kids

discovered and filmed by foreign there,” Upton replied. “That’ll be easy.”

news programmes, including 20/20 Undone by ‘Shame of a Nation’,

in the United States, which broadcast Upton had flown to Romania and

‘Shame of a Nation’ in 1990. made his way to the worst place

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Reader’s Digest

on the show, the Home

Hospital for Irrecoverable

Children in Sighetu

Marmatiei. He went back

a few times. On one visit,

he filmed a bunch of kids

for prospective adoptive

parents. His video would

not show children packed

together naked “like little

reptiles in an aquarium,” as

he’d described them, but

as people, wearing clothes

and speaking.

By then, donations had

started to come in. The staff

skimmed the best items, but

on that day, in deference to

the American, nannies put

donated sweaters on the

kids. Upton and his Roma-

nian assistant found it slow-

going. Some children didn’t Top: Izidor in front of his orphanage in June 1991,

speak at all, and others were four months before the Ruckels adopted him.

unable to stand up or to Bottom: 11-year-old Izidor meets Marlys Ruckel
stand still. When asked the for the first time in Romania, with one of the
children’s names and ages, orphanage workers.

the nannies shrugged.

At the end of a wooden bench sat from the land of the giant houses!

a boy the size of a seven-year-old—at Izidor knew the information the photos courtesy of ruckel family

age 10, Izidor weighed about 23 kilos. nannies didn’t. John Upton would

He knew about Americans from the ask a kid, “How old are you?” and the

TV show Dallas. On Sunday nights, kid would say, “I don’t know,” and

ambulatory kids, nannies and work- the nanny would say, “I don’t know,”

ers gathered to watch Dallas on a do- and Izidor would yell, “He’s 14!”

nated TV. When rumours flew up the He’d ask about another kid, “What’s

stairs that day that an American had his last name?” and Izidor would

arrived, the reaction inside the or- yell, “Dumka!”

phanage was, Almighty God, someone “Izidor knows the children here

82 july 2021

Bonus Read

better than the staff,” Upton grouses interesting trade-off. He dryly replied
in one of the tapes. He lifts Izidor into to the translator: “We will see.”
his lap and asks if he’d like to go to
America. Izidor says that he would. That night, Marlys rejoiced about
what an angel Izidor was. Debbie
Back in San Diego, Upton told laughed, and told Marlys, “He struck
the Ruckels about the bright boy me more like a cool operator, a savvy
of about seven. “We’d wanted politician type. He was much more on
to adopt a baby,” Marlys says. “Then top of things than Chippy.” Ciprian
we saw John’s video and fell in love had spent the time in the office rum-
with Izidor.” maging wildly through desk drawers
and everyone’s pockets.
In May 1991, Marlys flew to Roma-
nia. Just before travelling, she learnt “No, he’s an innocent. He’s adorable,”
that Izidor was almost 11, but she Marlys said. “Did you see him pick me
was undaunted. She travelled with a to be his mother?”

Years later, in Abandoned for Life,

“HE’S AN INNOCENT,” MARLYS SAID. “DID
YOU SEE HIM PICK ME TO BE HIS MOTHER?”

new friend, Debbie Principe, who had the memoir Izidor self-published at

been matched with a little blonde live age 22, he explained that moment:

wire named Ciprian. “Marlys was the tall American and

In the director’s office, Marlys Debbie was the short American …

waited to meet Izidor. “When Izidor ‘Roxana, which one is going to be my

entered,” she says, “all I saw was him, new mother?’ I asked the translator.

like everything else was fuzzy. He was “‘The tall American,’ she replied.

as beautiful as I’d imagined. Our trans- “When I picked Marlys, she began

lator asked him which of the visitors in to cry, filled with joy that I had

the office he hoped would be his new picked her.”

mother, and he pointed to me!”

IIzidor had a question for the transla- n October 1991, Izidor and Ciprian
flew with Romanian escorts to San
tor: “Where will I live? Is it like Dallas?” Diego. The boys’ new families
“Well … no, we live in a condo, like
an apartment,” Marlys said. “But you’ll awaited them at the airport. Izidor

have three sisters. You’ll love them.” gazed around the terminal with satis-

This did not strike Izidor as an faction. “Where is my bedroom?” he

readersdigest.in 83

Izidor insisted on starting

fourth grade in the local

school, where he quickly

learnt English. His canny

ability to read the room put

him in good stead with the

teachers, but at home, he

seemed constantly irritated.

Suddenly insulted, he’d

storm off to his room and tear

things apart.

“He shredded books, posters,

family pictures,” Marlys tells

me. “If I had to leave for an

hour, by the time I got home,

everyone would be upset: ‘He

did this; he did that.’ He didn’t

like the girls.”

Marlys and Danny had

hoped to expand the family

fun and happiness by bring-

ing in another child. But the

newest family member almost

Top: Danny Ruckel and Izidor head for home never laughed. He didn’t like photos by thomas szalay, courtesy of ruckel family
after the boy’s arrival in California. Bottom: to be touched. He was vigilant,
Izidor takes Marlys’s picture at the airport. hurt, proud.

“By about 14, he was angry

about everything,” she tells

asked. When Marlys told him they me. “He decided he’d grow up and be-

were in an airport, not his new home, come the American president. When

Izidor was taken aback. Though she’d he found out that wouldn’t be pos-

explained that the Ruckels did not live sible because of his foreign birth, he

like the Ewings in Dallas, he hadn’t said, ‘Fine, I’ll go back to Romania.’”

believed her. “That’s when that started—his goal

In the car, when Danny tried to of returning to Romania. We thought

click a seat belt across Izidor’s waist, it was a good thing for him to have a

he bucked and yelled, fearing he was goal, so we said, ‘Sure, get a job, save

being straitjacketed. your money and when you’re 18,

Marlys homeschooled the girls, but you can move back to Romania.’”

84 july 2021

Bonus Read

Izidor worked every day after school officer searched Izidor’s room, and
at a fast-food restaurant. found his savings-account book.

“Those were rough years. I was “We can’t take him,” the officer told
walking on eggshells, trying not to set the Ruckels. “He’s mad, but there’s
him off,” Marlys says. “The girls were nothing wrong here. I’d suggest you
so over it. It was me they were mad lock your bedroom doors tonight.”
at. They’d say, ‘Mom, all you do is try
to fix him!’” The next morning Marlys and Danny
offered Izidor a ride to school and then
Danny and Marlys tried taking him drove him straight to a psychiatric hos-
to therapy, but he refused to go back. pital instead. “We couldn’t afford it,
but we took a tour and it scared him,”
“He’d say: ‘I’m fine when nobody’s Marlys tells me. “He said, ‘Don’t leave
in the house,’” Marlys says. me here! I’ll follow your rules.’

“We’d say: ‘But Izidor, it’s our house.’” “Back in the car, we said: ‘Listen,
When banished to his room, for Izidor, you don’t have to love us, but
rudeness or cursing or being mean to

THE NEWEST FAMILY MEMBER ALMOST NEVER
LAUGHED. HE WAS VIGILANT, HURT, PROUD.

the girls, Izidor would stomp up the you have to be safe and we have to be
stairs and blast Romanian music or safe. You can live at home, work and
bang on his door from the inside with go to school until you’re 18. We love
his fists or a shoe. you.’ But, you know, the sappy stuff
didn’t work with him.”
One night when Izidor was 16,
Marlys and Danny felt so scared by Living by the rules didn’t last long.
Izidor’s outburst that they called the One night Izidor stayed out until
police. “I’m going to kill you!” he’d two a.m., and found the house locked.
screamed at them. After an officer He banged on the door. Marlys
escorted Izidor to the police car, he opened it a crack. “Your things are in
insisted that his parents “abused” him. the garage,” she told him.

“Great,” said Marlys. “Did he happen Izidor would never again live at
to mention how we abuse him?” home. He moved in with some guys
he knew; their indifference suited
Back in the car, the officer asked: him. “He’d get drunk in the middle of
“How do your parents abuse you?” the night and call us, and his friends
would get on the line to say vulgar
“I work and they take all my money,”
Izidor hollered. In the house, the

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things about our daughters,” Marlys Implicitly, poignantly: Can a person
says. “Admittedly, it was finally unloved in childhood learn to love?
peaceful in our house, but I worried
about him.” In 2000, Charles A. Nelson III, a
professor of paediatrics and neuro-
On Izidor’s 18th birthday, Marlys science at Harvard Medical School
baked a cake and wrapped his gift, and Boston Children’s Hospital, and
a photo album documenting their two colleagues launched the Bucha-
life together: his first day in America, rest Early Intervention Project (BEIP).
his first dental appointment, his first It would become the first-ever ran-
job. She took the presents to the domized controlled trial to measure
house where she’d heard her son was the impact of early institutionaliza-
staying. The person who answered tion on brain and behavioural devel-
the door agreed to deliver them when opment and to examine high-quality
Izidor got back. foster care as an alternative.

“THESE CHILDREN HAD NO IDEA THAT AN
ADULT COULD MAKE THEM FEEL BETTER.”

“In the middle of the night,” Marlys They worked with 136 children, ages
says, “we heard a car squealing around six months to two-and-a-half years,
the cul-de-sac, then a loud thud against from six Bucharest leagãne, baby in-
the front door and the car squealing stitutions. None was a Home Hospi-
away. I went down and opened the tal for Irrecoverable Children; they
door. It was the photo album.” were somewhat better supplied and
staffed. By design, 68 would continue
In the decade after the fall of to receive “care as usual”, while the
Ceausescu, the new Romanian other 68 would be placed with foster
government welcomed Western families recruited and trained by BEIP.
child-development experts to help Local kids made up a third group.
and study the tens of thousands of
children still warehoused in state care. “Our coders, unaware of any child’s
Researchers hoped to answer some background, assessed 100 per cent of
long-standing questions, such as: If the community kids as having fully
an institutionalized child is trans- developed attachment relationships
ferred into a family setting, can he or with their mothers,” says Charles H.
she recoup undeveloped capacities? Zeanah, a child-psychiatry profes-
sor at the Tulane University School

86 july 2021

of Medicine. “That was true of three

percent of the institutionalized kids.”

Thirteen percent displayed no at-

tachment behaviours, such as seek-

ing comfort for distress from a carer

or exhibiting anxiety when separated

from a carer.

“These children had no idea that an

adult could make them feel better,”

Zeneah told me. “Imagine how that

must feel—to be miserable and not

even know that another human be-

ing could help.”

As early as 2003, it was evident that

the foster-care children were making

progress. Glimmering through

the data was a sensitive period of By 1991, the Ruckel family had
24 months during which it was crucial adopted two children: Izidor (front,
for a child to establish an attachment left) and Izabela (in the wheelchair).
relationship with a caregiver.

“Timing is critical,” the researchers

wrote. Brain plasticity wasn’t the amygdala—the main part of the

“unlimited,” they warned. “Earlier brain dealing with fear and emotion—

is better.” After the researchers seemingly worked overtime in the

announced their results publicly, the still-institutionalized children.

Romanian government banned the Nelson cautions that the door

institutionalization of children under doesn’t “slam shut” for children left in

the age of two. institutions beyond 24 months of age.

Meanwhile, the study continued. “But the longer you wait to get children

photo courtesy of ruckel family At age three-and-a-half, the portion into a family,” he says, “the harder it

of children who displayed secure is to get them back on an even keel.”

attachments climbed to nearly 50 per

cent among the foster-care kids, but Housing developments fan
to only 18 per cent among those who out from the Denver airport.
remained institutionalized. In a rental car, I drive slowly
around the semicircles and
Unattached children see threats

everywhere, an idea borne out in cul-de-sacs of Izidor’s subdivision

brain studies. Flooded with stress until I see him step out of the shadow

hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, of a 4,500-square-foot house with

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a polite half-wave. It’s 2019 and he Izidor had a happy day. A kind nanny
sublets a room here, as do others, named Onisa had started working at
including some families. the hospital. “She loved to sing and
often taught us some of her music,”
At 39, Izidor is an elegant, wiry man Izidor writes in his memoir.
with mournful eyes. His manner is
alert and tentative. A general manager One day, she intervened when
for a fast-food restaurant, he works another nanny was striking Izidor
60- to 65-hour weeks. with a broomstick. To cheer him up,
Onisa promised that someday she’d
“Every time we got into another take him home for an overnight visit.
fight,” Izidor remembers, “I wanted Skeptical that such an extraordinary
one of them to say: ‘Izidor, we wish event would ever happen, Izidor
we had never adopted you and we thanked her for the nice idea.
are going to send you back to the
hospital.’ But they didn’t say it.” A few weeks later, on a snowy

“IT WAS SIMPLER IN THE ORPHANAGE—EITHER
YOU WERE BEING BEATEN OR YOU WEREN’T.”

Unable to process his family’s affec- winter day, Onisa dressed Izidor in
tion, he just wanted to know where he warm clothes and shoes, and led him
stood. It was simpler in the orphan- out the front door and through the or-
age, where either you were being phanage gate. She took the small boy,
beaten or you weren’t. “I responded who swayed with a deep, tilting limp,
better to being smacked around,” Iz- into the town. “It was my first time
idor tells me. “In America, they had ever going out into the world,” he tells
‘rules’ and ‘consequences.’ So much me now. He looked in astonishment at
talk. I hated ‘Let’s talk about this.’” the cars and houses and shops. “When
I stepped into Onisa’s apartment,” he
“As a child, I’d never heard words writes, “I could not believe how beau-
like ‘You are special’ or ‘You’re our tiful it was; the walls were covered with
kid.’ Later, if your adoption parents dark rugs and there was a picture of the
tell you words like that, you feel, Last Supper on one of them. The car-
Okay, whatever, thanks. I don’t even pets on the floor were red.”
know what you’re talking about. I
don’t know what you want from me, Onisa’s children arrived home from
or what I’m supposed to do for you.” school, and Izidor learnt that it was
Once, when he was about eight, the start of their Christmas holiday.

88 july 2021

He feasted alongside Onisa’s family at

their friends’ dinner table that night,

tasting Romanian specialties for the

first time, including sarmale (stuffed

cabbage), potato goulash with thick

noodles and yellow sponge cake with

cream filling.

On the living-room floor after

dinner, the child of that household

let Izidor play with his toys. Izidor

followed the boy’s lead and drove

little trains across the rug.

The next morning, Onisa asked

Izidor if he wanted to go to work with

her or to stay with her children. Not

wanting to be parted from her, he

chose work.

“I got dressed as fast as I could, and At age 16, Izidor started work at a fast-
we headed out the door,” he remem- food restaurant , with the goal of earning
bers. “When we were near her work, I enough money to return to Romania.
realized that her work was at the hos-

pital—my hospital—and I began to

cry … Somehow I thought I was going

to be part of Onisa’s family now.” real home. For many years I thought,

Through his own stupidity, he Why can’t I have a home like that?”

had let the most wonderful spot on Now he does. But he knows there

Earth—Onisa’s apartment—slip away. are missing parts.

He sobbed until the other nannies

photo courtesy of ruckel family Athreatened to slap him. t 20, in 2001, Izidor felt an
Today in his bedroom, Izidor has urgent desire to return to
re-created the setting from the hap- Romania. Short on cash, he

piest night in his childhood. wrote to TV shows, pitching the story

“You see this?” he says, picking up a of a Romanian orphan making his first

tapestry woven with burgundy roses trip back to his home country. One

on a dark, leafy background. “This is took him up on it, and on 25 March

almost identical to Onisa’s. I bought it 2001, a film crew met him at the Los

in Romania for that reason!” Angeles airport. So did the Ruckels.

For Izidor, these possessions signify “I thought, This is it. I’ll never see

peace. “It was the first time I slept in a him again,” Marlys says. She hugged

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Reader’s Digest

and kissed him and told him, “You’ll mother—and reached out to hug him.
always be our son and we’ll always Suddenly angry, Izidor swerved past
love you.” her. How can I greet someone I barely
know? he remembers thinking. She
Izidor showed the Ruckels two family began to wail, “Fiul meu! Fiul meu!”
photographs in his wallet. “In case I do My son! My son!
decide to stay there, I’ll have something
to remember you by,” he said. Marlys The house had a dirt floor, and an oil
was chilled by the ease with which lamp glowed dimly. The family offered
Izidor seemed to be exiting their lives. Izidor the best seat in the house, a
stool. “Why was I put in the hospital?”
In Romania, the producers took he asked.
Izidor to visit his old orphanage, where
he was feted like a returning prince, “You were six weeks old when you
and then they revealed that they’d got sick,” Maria said. “We took you
found his birth family three hours to the doctor to see what was wrong.
away. They drove through a snowy Your grandparents checked on you

MARIA—HIS MOTHER—REACHED OUT TO HUG
IZIDOR. SUDDENLY ANGRY, HE SWERVED AWAY.

landscape and pulled over in a field. a few weeks later, but then there was

Wearing a white button-down shirt, something wrong with your right leg.

a tie and dress pants, Izidor limped We asked the doctor to fix your leg, but

across the soggy, uneven ground to no one would help us. So we took you

a one-room shack. He was shaking. to a hospital in Sighetu Marmatiei, and

A narrow-faced man emerged from that’s where we left you.”

the hut and strode toward him. They “Why did no one visit me for

passed each other. “Ce mai faci?”— 11 years?”

How are you?—the man mumbled as “Your father was out of work. I was

he walked by. taking care of the other children. We

“Bun,” Izidor muttered. Good. couldn’t afford to come see you.”

That was Izidor’s father. Two young “Do you know that living in the

women then hurried from the hut and Camin Spital was like living in hell?”

greeted Izidor with kisses on each “My heart,” cried Maria. “You must

cheek; these were his sisters. Finally understand that we’re poor people;

a short, black-haired woman not yet we were moving from one place

50 identified herself as Maria—his to another.”

90 july 2021

Izidor and Marlys

Agitated, Izidor got up during a visit to
Romania in 2015.

and went outside. His

Romanian family invited

him to look at pictures

of his older siblings

who’d left home, and he

presented them with his

photo album: Here was a

grinning Izidor poolside,

wearing medals from a

swimming competition;

here were the Ruckels at

the beach; here they were

at a picnic.

When the TV cameras were turned with him. It’s harder for him to come

off, Izidor tells me, Maria asked home to California, Marlys says.

whether the Ruckels had hurt him “Thanksgiving, Christmas—they’re too

or taught him to beg. He assured her much for him.”

neither was true.

N“You look thin,” Maria went on. europsychologist Ron
Federici was another of the
“Move in with us. I will take care offirst wave of child-development
you.” She pressed him for details
about his jobs and wages and asked experts to visit the institutions for the

if he’d like to build the family a new ‘unsalvageables’, and he has become

house. After three hours, Izidor was one of the world’s top specialists caring

exhausted and eager to leave. for post-institutionalized children

“He called me from Bucharest,” adopted into Western homes. “In the

Marlys says, “and said, ‘I have to come early years, everybody had starry eyes,”

home. Get me out of here. These Federici says. “They thought loving,

photo courtesy of ruckel family people are awful.’” caring families could heal these kids.

A few weeks later he was back in I warned them: These kids are going

Temecula, a Southern California to push you to the breaking point. Get

wine-country town where the Ruckels, trained to work with special-needs

who have adopted five children from children. Instead of ‘I love you,’ just tell

foster care in recent years, now live. them, ‘You are safe.’”

Friends told him there were jobs in But most new or prospective

Denver, so he decided to move there. parents couldn’t bear to hear it.

Danny and Marlys visit him there Federici and his wife adopted eight

and have gone on trips to Romania children from brutal institutions

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Reader’s Digest

themselves: three from Russia and By any measure, Izidor—living
five from Romania. In his clinical independently—is a success
practice in Virginia, Federici has seen story among the survivors of

9,000 young people, close to a third Ceausescu’s institutions. “Do you

of them from Romania. Tracking his imagine ever having a family?” I ask.

patients across the decades, he has “You mean of my own? No. I have

found that about 20 per cent are able known since I was 15 that I would not

to live independently. have a family. Seeing all my friends in

The most successful parents, he dumb relationships, with jealousy and

believes, were able to focus on control and depression—I thought,

imparting basic living skills and Really? All that for a relationship? No.”

appropriate behaviours. “The Ruckels He says he doesn’t miss what he

are a good example—they hung on, never knew, what he doesn’t even per-

and he’s doing okay.” ceive. He focuses on the tasks before

Within his own family, Federici and him and does his best to act the way

“IT’S HARD ON PARENTS—THEY SHOW YOU
LOVE AND YOU CAN’T RETURN IT,” IZIDOR SAYS.

his wife have become the permanent humans expect other humans to act.
legal guardians for four of his Roma- “I’m not a person who can be intimate,”
nian children, who are now all adults. Izidor says. “It’s hard on a person’s par-
Two work, under supervision, for a ents, because they show you love and
foundation he established in Bucha- you can’t return it.”
rest; two others live with their par- Sometimes, Izidor has feelings. Two
ents. (The fifth is a stirring example years after the Ruckels kicked him out,
of the fortunate 20 per cent—he’s an Izidor was getting a haircut from a styl-
ER physician.) Both of his adult sons ist who knew the family. “Did you hear
who haven’t left home are cognitively what happened?” she asked. “Your
impaired, but they have jobs and are mom and sisters got in a terrible car
pleasant to be around, according to accident yesterday. They’re in the hos-
Federici. “They’re happy!” he exclaims. pital.” Izidor tore out of there, bought
“They’ve figured out ways, not to over- three dozen red roses, and showed up
come what happened to them—you at the hospital.
can’t really overcome—but to adapt to “We were in the truck coming out of
it and not take other people hostage.” Costco,” Marlys recalls, “and a guy hit

92 july 2021

Bonus Read

us really hard. After a few hours at the lay the flowers in his mother’s arms

hospital, we were released. I didn’t call and say, with a greater attempt at ear-

Izidor to tell him. We weren’t speaking. nestness than they’d ever heard before,

But he found out, and I guess at the “These are for all of you. I love you.” It

hospital he said, ‘I’m here to see the would mark a turning point. From that

Ruckel family,’ and they said, ‘They’re day on, something would be softer in

not here anymore,’ which he took to him, regarding the Ruckel family.

mean ‘They’re dead.’” But first, Izidor was obliged to ap-

Izidor raced from the hospital to the proach the heavy wooden door, the

house—the house he’d been boycot- door he’d slammed behind him a hun-

ting, the family he hated. dred times, the door he’d battered and

He assumed Danny Ruckel wasn’t kicked when he was locked out. He

going to let him in without a negotia- knocked and stood on the front step,

tion. “What are your intentions?” he head hanging, heart pounding, unsure

would ask. “Do you promise to be whether he’d be admitted.

decent to us?” Izidor would promise. I abandoned them, I neglected them, I

Danny would allow Izidor to enter the put them through hell, he thought.

living room and face everyone, to stand And then they opened the door.

there with his arms full of flowers and from THE ATLANTIC (june 2020), copyright © 2020

by the atlantic media co. distributed by tribune

his eyes wet with tears. Izidor would content agency, llc. all rights reserved.

I Have an IKEA Joke, but It Needs Too Much Setup

The Internet loves a good joke—and many bad ones too.
Some of the most popular follow a pattern that starts “I have a
joke, but ...” and ends with the ironic reason why the joke can’t
wbe revealed after all. These are some of the latest and greatest:

I have a prune joke, but it’s dated.
I have a Stars Wars joke, but it’s forced.

I have a nihilist joke, but who cares?
I have a joke about a broken clock, but it’s not the right time.

I have a joke about cows, but I don’t want to milk it.
I have a joke about Zoom meetings, but my Internet connection is unstable.

Huffpost.com and Mashable.com

readersdigest.in 93

CULTURESCAPE

Books, Arts and Entertainment

SAYING IT
LIKE IT IS
In the midst of a vibrant second innings, actor Neena Gupta
talks about battling stereotypes, being spoiled for choice at

the age of 62 and her recently released autobiography

by Suhani Singh

In July 2017, you tweeted: “I live in Bold choices have been a mainstay
Mumbai, and I am working, and I am a in your life and career, from quite
good actress, koee kam hai toe batao early on. You wore a swimsuit and
(Let me know if there’s any work)”. Did rode a bicycle in your first on-screen
you imagine that this tweet, when you role in Aadharshila. Did you feel the
had just 11,000 followers, would cre- choices you made were gutsy?
ate such a shift in your career? Back then, I actually wanted to mix my
Never! In fact, I was scared that I had studies in Sanskrit and theatre and not
written something wrong, that my act in films. When this offer came to
daughter, Masaba, would scold me me, I was very excited, even though
for it and people would say that I am I didn’t know how to ride a bicycle. I
foolish for saying so. The reaction to would practise in a lane with the help
it was huge but I still didn’t think that of an actor who’d teach me. There
it would materialise into work or that is an interesting story behind the
my life would change after it. swimsuit that isn’t mentioned in the

94 july 2021

Reader’s Digest
readersdigest.in 95

Reader’s Digest

book. My mother didn’t let me learn Hindi-speaking, Sanskrit-studying
swimming because, of course, there’d girl should dress and behave. These
be boys in the pool. But it didn’t stop preconceived notions about a modern
her from getting me a swimsuit from woman and a behenji still exist today.
an auction in the American Embassy. Dealing with them was a part of my
It just lay in the house. So, when the life then. My progress was hindered
director said I need you to wear a because of them. [Through the book]
swimsuit, I remembered I had one. It I have shown the kind of hypocrisy
was very stylish with tiger stripes. On people propagate in the guise of
the day of the shoot, I was very shy sanskaar. You will educate your
but my whole mental energy went daughters but ultimately you want
into riding the cycle and ensuring them to get married, stay at home and
that I don’t fall. I didn’t think of what raise kids.
is showing or how I am looking.
Professional hardships and your
You were seen as ‘lallu ladki’ (a weakest moments find a place in
silly, vapid girl) after the film Saath your book. Were you ever worried
Saath. How hard was it to get the about divulging too much, or that
work you wanted thereafter? people would judge you?
Look at Mehmood. I think he was a Actually, no. Once I started to write,
very good-looking guy and a great I had absolute clarity on what should
actor. But apart from comedy, did go in the book and what shouldn’t. I
anyone give him a chance to do have been vulnerable when people
anything else? At the time, being wrote lies about me. I didn’t speak
typecast was the norm. I didn’t let up because I was in no position to
myself be typecast as a vamp or a
comedian. If I had, I could have
done much better and would have
got something out of it. As a result,
filmmakers didn’t remember me and
I wouldn’t be approached for work.

In your autobiography Sach Kahun Neena Gupta in a still from Badhaai Ho
Toh, you write that ‘behenji’ and
‘shameless’—two contradictory
words—have been the most descrip-
tive of your life. Tell us about that.
Back in Delhi, it was me trying to
battle society’s perception of how a

96 july 2021

Culturescape

defend myself. But success gives you when they saw the short film Khujli,
confidence. Now my work speaks that I had done with Jackie Shroff, they
for itself. I have no fear. What will realised that I could do it. That is how I
anyone say or do? My confidence has ended up with Badhaai Ho.
improved after the success I’ve had
since Badhaai Ho. It was time I shared Are you spoiled for choice now? Do
my true story. I didn’t feel like hiding you end up having to say ‘no’ to work?
anything. What happened is what I am Yes, that is happening. Now, if a
bringing out on page. project doesn’t touch my heart, I
don’t do it. Earlier, there was no such
You have won a National Award not option. Whatever came my way, I’d
just for acting, but also for directing do it because I needed the money. It
(the documentary Bazaar Sitaram). feels good not to wake up feeling, ‘Oh
You have directed TV shows, as well. no, shooting pe jaana hai’. Now it’s like
Is this something you’d one day like ‘let it be morning soon, so that I can
to return to? head to the set’.
Right now I am not thinking of anything
but acting. Just look at my fate! The Have web shows like Panchayat
pandemic happened and all work came and Masaba Masaba enabled you
to a halt. I don’t have as many years on to reach a new audience?
me as younger actors do. I feel this time It has changed things a lot. The main
was precious. I could have done a lot of advantage of the medium is that people
work. But I am content that I am still can watch you from the comfort of their
able to work. home as many times as they want, and,
sometimes, even after a year. A show
You write that “... an industry is a like Panchayat, a simple story set in a
business, and nobody is your friend”. village, is a great thing. I am looking for-
Is the industry finally befriending ward to shooting the new season.
you and giving you your due?
What happened was that a director You are very candid about heart-
named Amit Sharma gave Neena Gupta breaks and your relationships.
a break that she was looking for with What lessons do you hope readers
Badhaai Ho. It changed everything. take away from these experiences?
What’s important to remember is that There’s only one lesson in
nothing goes to waste in life. I think it it—don’t ever do what I did. I feel my
was Tabu who suggested my name for judgement about people has not been
Badhaai Ho. The makers initially said very good. I should have waited, or
that, “No, she looks very hot, how will should have seen through them and
she fit the ‘Mummy-type’ figure?” But not fallen for them.

readersdigest.in 97

LAUGHTER

The best Medicine

“Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick.
Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick.

Then I thought, Why not just take a bath?”

A teacher giving a les- One little fellow opened my suit shannon wheeler/cartooncollections.com
son on the circulation shouts, “ ’Cause your coat, and asked,
of blood says to her feet ain’t empty!” “Does anyone notice
class, “Now, if I stood anything unusual
on my head, the blood, —Innerworkspublishing.com about me?”
as you know, would
run into it, and I would For my Sunday ser- A child shouted,
turn red in the face.” mon, I purposely “Yes, your shoes
buttoned my suit are dirty.”
“Yes,” the whole vest incorrectly to —Lewis Kujawski
class agrees. illustrate how diffi-
cult it is to fix things Reading a letter at the
“Then why is it,” she once you’ve started breakfast table, a wife
continues, “that while off on the wrong foot. suddenly looks at her
I am standing upright, So I stood before husband suspiciously.
the blood doesn’t run my congregation, “Henry,” she says, “I
into my feet?”
Æ
98 july 2021