Reader’s Digest USA – December 2020 January 2021

content viewed each 5 A major reason: of your own home will
week, Netflix is by far Streaming net- cost a hefty $29.99—on
the biggest paid ser- works have be- top of the service’s
vice. No. 2 is Amazon come home to many of monthly fee of $6.99.
Prime Video. But for the most acclaimed TV
every Goliath, there series, including recent 7 Considering the
are a hundred Davids. Emmy winners The money and pres-
Many smaller stream- Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, tige at stake, it’s
ing services focus on Fleabag, and The Hand- no wonder that compe-
niche programming, maid’s Tale. They offer tition for programming
showing nothing but full-length feature films is fiercer than the fight-
sports, classic movies, as well, and last year, ing in Game of Thrones.
or Japanese anime. Netflix received more NBC paid $100 million
Oscar nominations than to bring The Office to
3 on the early days any other media com- its new streaming ser-
of streaming, the pany. In fact, streaming vice, Peacock, which
appeal was the has changed the Oscar is the new home for
lower cost, and it still is. competition, at least for all shows and movies
The average streamer this year: Usually only owned by NBCUniver-
spends $37 a month films shown in theaters sal. WarnerMedia paid
(and subscribes to three are considered, but $425 million to get
streaming platforms), because of the corona- exclusive streaming
while the average cable virus, all movies re- rights to Friends for
user pays more than leased online in 2020 its HBO Max platform,
$200 per month. are eligible for the 2021 which is also the only
Academy Awards. place to find all eight
4 Still, streaming Harry Potter movies.
has become more 6 That shift is es-
expensive in re- pecially good news 8 Some streaming
cent years. In 2019, for Disney, which services include an
Netflix raised the price had to ditch its planned option to add live
of its basic service theatrical releases for TV, but it drives up the
12.5 percent, to $8.99 a two of its anticipated price. A basic monthly
month. A quarter of its blockbusters, Hamilton Hulu subscription costs
subscribers, who have and Mulan. Both are $5.99; with live TV, it
a history of protesting now on the company’s jumps to $54.99. Ser-
price increases, said new streaming service, vices such as SlingTV
they would cancel their Disney+. But watching offer cheaper packages
subscriptions. Few did. Mulan from the comfort with only a core group

Rd.com 49

Reader’s Digest 13 Things

of popular channels. 10 There are 12 Too much
If you want to cut cable free streaming streaming can
but are devoted to a services, such get you into
particular network, sign as Crackle, Tubi TV, trouble, however. Nearly
up for its streaming ser- and Xumo. They tend half of people who
vice. Almost every net- to have fewer titles to stream shows with their
work has one. Most are choose from—or make significant other admit
less than $10 a month. you sit through com- to “cheating”—watching
mercials. One excep- episodes ahead of the
9 Not sure whether tion: Kanopy, which other person. As many
a given service is doesn’t show ads and as 60 percent of cheat-
worth the money? offers 30,000 films. You ers say they would cheat
Most offer 7- or 30-day need a membership more often if they could
free trial periods. (But card from your local get away with it.
be careful—they will public library to sign up.
automatically charge 13 And then there
you the day your trial 11 It’s hard to find are those who
ends.) If you buy a new your favorite binge-watch, a
iPhone, iPad, or Mac shows when term Merriam-Webster
computer, you get a streaming platforms are added in 2017 with
free year of AppleTV+. rotating content like the definition “to watch
Verizon unlimited plan museum exhibits. But many or all episodes
holders get complimen- many smart TVs and of (a TV series) in rapid
tary access to Disney+. media players such as succession.” Alejandro
And T-Mobile offers Roku will find them for Fragoso of New York
its customers a year you. There are also free City holds the Guinness
of Netflix and Quibi, online databases, such World Record for the
a newer streaming app as reelgood.com and longest binge-watching
with shows designed justwatch.com, that can bender: 94 straight
for viewing on a phone. locate particular titles. hours. RD

Money to Burn
During filming of Rush Hour 2, $1 billion in prop money was blown up, but
some bills survived and ended up in circulation. This sparked change in federal
rules on the appearance of prop money. Some bills now state “For Movie
Use Only,” and the really convincing fakes can be printed only on one side.

CNN

50 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 | RD.com

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LAUGHTER

The best Medicine

A couple’s doorbell says, “Remember last “All right,” says the
rings while they’re winter when you got husband. “I can’t see
sleeping. The husband stuck in a snowdrift much out there. Where
opens the second-floor and a stranger pushed are you?”
window but can’t see your car out? You
much because of a should help this man!” “On the sled.”
raging blizzard. —Submitted by
The husband agrees Gary Katz
“Who’s there?” he and goes back to the Long Grove, Illinois
yells. window.
Young Billy and Willy
“Could you give me “Are you still there?” were walking home
a push?” a voice cries. he calls down. from Sunday school,
where they had just
“C’mon, man, it’s “Yes,” comes the re- learned about Noah’s
two a.m.!” the husband sponse. “I really would
replies. But his wife appreciate a push.”

52 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 Cartoon by Joe di Chiarro

Reader’s Digest

My New Year’s resolution is to get in shape. A state trooper pulled
I choose round. alongside a speeding
car on the freeway.
—Sarah Millican, comedian Glancing at the car, he
was astounded to see
ark. Willy asked, and we didn’t want that the elderly woman
“Do you think Noah you to think that the behind the wheel was
did much fishing?” operation had failed!” knitting.
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“How could he?” C.H. via rd.com The trooper cranked
said Billy. “He had down his window and
only two worms.” If the person who yelled to the driver,
named walkie-talkies “Pull over!”
—TheadvocaTe.com named everything,
would ... “No!” the woman
A lawyer had an ✦ stamps be yelled back. “It’s a
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the nurse why, she It could be worth $$$.
said, “There was a —GcFL.neT For details, go to
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THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER

What do you get someone who has everything? How about a good laugh?
These are prank gift boxes—and recipients will surely appreciate that whatever
you put inside doesn’t match the description on the outside.

via pranKo.com

Rd.com 53

Reader’s Digest

DNY59/GettY ImaGes

COVER STORY

The Season for

Family
Miracles

A mother’s eerie premonition. An uncle’s unusual
joyride. The sweet wait for a dad’s holiday treat.
If you need a little extra warmth this year, these three

wonderful stories will do the job nicely.

Dad’s Mystery A few years ago, my father
Package arranged to send me a mail-
order fruitcake at Christmas-
My father resembled a time. Although I had a good job and
fruitcake. One year, he even owned an apartment in Manhattan,
sent one. It never arrived. he feared my cupboards and refrig-
erator might be bare. I had recently
By David Rompf moved from California, where my
AdApted from the new York times parents still lived in their suburban
bungalow of 50 years, the house I
grew up in.

He wanted me to have a particular

Rd.com | dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 55

Reader’s Digest Cover Story stylist: Jacqueline Draper for tHis represents

brand of fruitcake. Made in Texas, it
was famous among fruitcake lovers—
or, at least, among people who gave
fruitcakes to those who were assumed
to love them.

“It reminds me of my mother’s,” he
told me in a phone call. “Hers was
really moist, with lots of raisins.”

I later figured out that my grand-
mother’s version, which I never had
the chance to taste, was probably a
Depression cake, made without milk,
sugar, butter, or eggs, scarce commod-
ities when he was a child.

Born in 1932, Dad grew up dur-
ing the Great Depression in the Up-
per Peninsula of Michigan. On most
Christmases, he received two gifts: a
pair of homemade socks and a small
sack of oranges.

“My mother knitted the socks,” he
said. “And those oranges tasted so
good.”

Ordering the fruitcake was his way
of trying to take care of me from afar,
in an era that, in his mind, might at
any moment turn economically per-
ilous. Regardless of my middle-aged
status, I was still his son.

“It should arrive the first week of
December,” he said. “As soon as you
get it, let me know what you think.”

I would be going to California for
Christmas, as I do every year, and
I was looking forward to his gift and to
sampling the flavors that transported
him to his childhood.

The first week of December passed
with no sign of his fruitcake. Delayed

56 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 | RD.com

Photograph by Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh

Reader’s Digest

by holiday mail, I assumed, or a back- were so overstuffed that I often had to
log of orders. put most of the food in a box and mail
it home. One year I assembled a few
I knew there would be plenty to of the healthier items—sardines, rye
eat in California. In addition to my crisps, dried apricots—and on the way
mother’s cookies, fudge, and other to the airport made a special delivery
treats, my father always gave my sis- of my own to the donation center of a
ter and me each a large bag of as- local church.
sorted foods he called, rather plainly,
the “Food Bag.” He produced these Fruitcake is a polarizing concept, a
from some secret spot only after all triggering word. People love it or hate
the other presents had been opened. it and like to debate whether it’s cake
One year, I listed the contents of my at all. In some ways, my father’s char-
acter resembled a fruitcake: whimsy
THE FRUITCAKE and a little nuttiness mixed with a
WAS HIS WAY OF sweet foundation.
TAKING CARE OF ME
When we were children and went
FROM AFAR. to the local shopping mall, he liked
to spritz on women’s perfume—all of
Food Bag in a notebook. I suppose them. This was before men’s cologne
I wanted a record for myself, for the counters were common. Once they
day when I might not get a Food Bag were, he would transform himself
for Christmas. That year, my bag con- into a pansexual bouquet of exotic
tained a can of deluxe mixed nuts, a fragrances. On our drives home, my
box of whole-wheat crackers, a Bel- mother would say, “You stink! What
gian chocolate bar, a stick of hickory- did you put on this time?”
cured turkey sausage, a half-pound
sack of California red pistachios, some While working as a meat cutter in
English breakfast tea, and many other grocery stores, he was called Crazy
items, including an “Oh Deer Super Charlie by his coworkers and was
Dooper Reindeer Pooper Jelly Bean known for workplace pranks, such as
Dispenser” filled with jelly beans. pretending to lock someone in the
walk-in meat freezer. But he also gave
I was 44 when my father gave me out instructions to customers who
that Food Bag, and he was 72. didn’t know how to roast lamb or
make stuffing. When he came home
The bags had an uncanny but un- from late shifts, he left candy bars
deniable kinship with fruitcakes, fea- under our pillows, thinking we might
turing a little of this and that thrown wake up wanting a snack.
together with intriguing results. They
My father believed everyone was

58 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Cover Story

always hungry and needed to eat. stood above piles of presents in glittery
When we visited him in the hospital paper, and in the spare bedroom, my
during a three-month stay—he was father, I knew, had hidden our Food
battling a vicious infection after heart Bags, concealed under large towels.
surgery—he would ask whether we had
eaten and never failed to remind us that He remained hopeful the fruitcake
the cafeteria would be closing soon. would come by New Year’s Eve, when
I’d be back in Midtown Manhattan,
“At least get a cup of coffee,” he’d humanity roaring from Times Square.
say. “Don’t worry about me.”
January, February, and March came
A fruitcake, in his mind, was a and went with no fruitcake. Though
perfect Christmas gift. The culinary my father continued to ask about it, I
jumble of jeweled fruits suggested an never once considered lying and tell-
extravagance that belied its practical- ing him yes, the fruitcake had finally
ity: Fruitcake can fill your belly and arrived and was delicious. Instead I
has a long shelf life. In 2017, a fruit- said, “That cake is orbiting earth, and
cake thought to have been brought on sooner or later it will land.”
Robert Scott’s Antarctica expedition
more than 100 years earlier was dis- “That’s a good one!” he said.
covered to be in “excellent condition.” His sense of humor never wavered,
and as time went on he would bring up
The day before my flight to Califor- the perpetual journey of his fruitcake.
nia, the fruitcake still had not arrived. “I wonder where it is now,” he’d say.
When my father called to wish me a “It’s taken a detour to Pluto.”
safe trip, he said, “Did you receive it?” He liked that one too.
“Do you want me to order another,
“Not yet,” I said. “It’s probably de- in case it never comes?”
layed in the holiday mail.” “That’s OK, Dad,” I said. “I’ll wait
for this one. It’ll taste even better after
“Maybe it’ll be there today.” He fret- touring the cosmos.”
ted deeply about that lost fruitcake.
Early last December, nearly a year
When I arrived at my parents’ house, after my father died from a failing
he said, “Did you get the fruitcake?” heart, I got a call from a staffer at the
front desk of my apartment building.
“No, but I’m sure it’ll be there when
I go home.” “You have a package,” he said.
I went downstairs to pick it up. The
As soon as the word left my lips, I re- brown box had a FedEx label with a
alized that home, for them, was a kind return address in Texas.
of triggering word. Because wasn’t this
home? Wasn’t I home now, with my New York Times (December 21, 2018), copYrighT © 2018
parents greeting me, asking whether I bY New York Times, NYTimes.com.
was hungry after the long flight?

In the living room, a Christmas tree

Rd.com 59

Reader’s Digest

60 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 illustration by Tim Bower

Cover Story

Celebrating

Like a Man

Uncle Ed was a tough guy of few words. But when
he took me on a Christmas Eve drive, he gave me
the kind of sweet memories that last a lifetime.

By Rick Bragg
From Southern Living

maria amador (sparkles) I waited too late to thank Uncle Ed Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol
for that Christmas Eve, but I guess and saw it come to life, in a way, in the
he and I were never the kind of men mist-shrouded mountains of north-
who wrote many notes, or read them. eastern Alabama.
Even around Christmas, when a little
silliness and frivolity is easier to toler- I have loved Christmas all my life.
ate, men of a certain time, place, and As a boy, I loved the grocery store,
class are unlikely to have anything to where frozen turkeys and smoked
do with a thank-you card. We would hams piled up like cannonballs. There
just as soon go caroling in a light-up was, and is, a beautiful kind of sturdi-
sweater. Southern men like us tend to ness to it here, mirroring the people.
keep the holiday our way and let oth- Trees were real and came from these
ers keep it theirs. mountains, usually cedars and hardy
pines. Our mistletoe was procured
Still, some Christmases are kept the old-fashioned way, by blasting
better than others. Some flash in and it out of the trees with a Remington.
out of our memories, like a short in an The ornaments were mostly hand-
old string of lights. made and almost always crafted from
twice-used aluminum foil. The star
For me, it will always be 1969 that that crowned a tree in December was
blinks back into my mind this time probably left over from wrapping a
of year. That was when I first read

Rd.com 61

Reader’s Digest

tomato sandwich the summer before. This year it was a deer roast as big as
This was my Christmas. It was a buffalo—and a present exchange.
Someone might bring a guitar or
simple, never fancy, but there was a French harp and even be brave
in it a wonderful warmth. Uncle Ed’s enough to sing. In the meantime,
wife, my aunt Juanita, filled the whole there were cookies and maybe fudge
house with the smell of her peanut to steal, aunts to irritate, and black-
butter cookies. Even the desserts were and-white reruns to rewatch on chan-
substantial; no sissy divinity candy nels 6, 40, and 13. Then at five o’clock,
would be tolerated here. My mama the weatherman would show us pre-
baked pecan pies that were so dense cisely where on his radar Santa Claus
you asked not for a slice but a slab. Pa- was in relation to Calhoun County, Al-
per plates buckled under the weight. abama. We believed in every bit of it.
My aunt Joe made corn bread dressing
you could eat with a fork, like cake. WE ATE BURGERS IN
THE TRUCK, LISTENED
But even this sturdy a Christmas
was too delicate for Uncle Ed, the TO THE RADIO, AND
hardest-working man I had ever SAVORED IT ALL.
known. He thought there was just
something wrong about taking time I would miss it all if I went with him,
off in the middle of the week—time maybe the whole Christmas. Once he
you could have spent running a chain got started on a job, even if it was just a
saw or on the end of a shovel handle. search for a truck, he would hang with
it till it was done. Surely it could wait.
And Christmas Eve was a workday
like any other. I was ten years old that “You want to go or not?” he asked.
year, just idling around the house and I had no spine. “I reckon,” I said.
yard, prowling through the wrapped It was one of those winter days in
presents under the tree, trying, with the Deep South that was almost black
my X-ray eyes, to peer beneath the by afternoon, so thick was the mist.
paper of a gift that looked suspiciously The low-lying clouds were cold gray.
like a G.I. Joe, when he asked me It seemed as if the heater in the old
whether I wanted to ride to Gadsden GMC would never warm up, and we
with him to look at a used dump truck. were halfway to Gadsden before my
toes began to thaw. Parts of the city,
Any other time, I would have an industrial town on the Coosa River,
knocked the furniture over getting would be brightly lit, and shoppers
out to his pickup. Country kids never would throng the downtown. Even
miss a chance to go to town, to go
anywhere. But this was the day be-
fore Christmas, just hours before all
our kin gathered here for a big feast.

62 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Cover Story

Goodyear, even the steel plants, would Alabama. We got two cheeseburgers
knock off early on Christmas Eve and each and a pile of fries that burned
join that celebration. But we steered my fingers. It was too early for supper
away from the lights and headed into and way past dinnertime, but when
the graveyards of old machines that you’re celebrating, you can ignore
have been part of such cities since the such as that. We ate in the truck and
start of the Industrial Revolution. We savored it all, listening to the radio.
found, I was dismayed to see, a few I don’t remember much being said
million used dump trucks. but just hearing the song about the
drummer boy and the one about the
Then, in a Christmas miracle, Uncle 12 days. Then he looked at his watch
Ed gazed down at his Timex and said again and said, “The women will be
we had bigger fish to fry. Looking at purty riled if we don’t git home.” But
that truck was just an excuse, a ruse. We we took our time going back, too, ad-
went to celebrate Christmas like men. miring holiday lights, taking the lon-
gest way. And before the Christmas
First, we headed to the day-old Eve celebration had even begun there
bread outlet and filled up the truck on Roy Webb Road, we’d celebrated
with fruitcakes, cinnamon buns, and all up and down Gadsden, Alabama,
doughnuts. Next, with powdered and the north half of Calhoun County.
sugar on our lips, we turned down It was as good a Christmas as I would
Broad Street and idled through the have for a very long time.
decked-out heart of the city on its
most festive day. The storefronts were I should have told him this when he
lit up, glowing, crowded with last- was alive, but things get awkward the
minute shoppers—daddies rolling longer you live. So, even though it’s
new bicycles and mamas staggering too late now, I want to thank him for
under big boxes. Santa Claus stood it, for letting me come along.
ringing a bell on a corner like it was
goin’ out of style. I saw him again in “And it was always said of him,
the music store, strumming a guitar, that he knew how to keep Christmas
and again in what I think was the well ...”
Western Auto or maybe the Otasco
with children on his knee. I asked Un- Some may hear those words of
cle Ed which one of them was the real Dickens and think of fine literature.
Santy, and he just took a draw on his But I see Uncle Ed in the glow of an
Winston and told me it was “prob’ly AM radio, smell french fries and Win-
that fust ’un.” stons, and hear the ticking of an old
Timex that, in the most beautiful way,
Then we turned south toward the didn’t mean a thing that day.
Big Chief Drive-In, which had one of
the finest hamburgers in northeast Southern Living (December 2019), copyright © 2019
by rick bragg, SouthernLiving.com.

Rd.com 63



Cover Story Reader’s Digest

The Woman in the

Red Coat

When my mother died, I thought I’d never enjoy Christmas
again. Then my father began dating a woman who

shared a most surprising link to my holiday traditions.

By Jessica Pearce Rotondi

C hristmas at my house meant kids crowded around the table, Mom
fresh pine boughs wrapped holding court over us all.
around the banister with velvet
ribbon, candles in every window, and I always took for granted that some-
homemade dinners for 20 cooked by day my own kids would gather at that
Mom. Mom was the only girl in a house same table and enjoy the traditions
full of four brothers, so when she had that had been passed down each
a home of her own to decorate and December. Life had other plans.
two daughters to dress up, she didn’t
hold back. Christmas was a monthlong Mom found her tumor on my 21st
ritual we waited for all year, running birthday. She was just 53. She died
errands in our matching red coats. On three years later, on October 29, 2009.
Christmas Day, we’d open the wreath- I was only 23.
covered front door to welcome cousins
and aunts and uncles. Three years after her death, I made
my annual pilgrimage north from
Over the years, the dining room Brooklyn to my childhood home
table—from my father’s own childhood outside of Boston for Christmas with
as one of 13 siblings—was adjusted to my dad and sister. We were all put-
expand as partners, then spouses, then ting on brave faces, but I couldn’t
stand the bare banister or candleless
windows. I channeled my inner Mom

Photograph by Mackenzie Williams Rd.com | dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 65

YWZZQQSF dream of being a writer when she COURTESY JESSICA PEARCE ROTONDI
had kids—or so I thought. Inside was
The author (second from right) and her a never-published manuscript for a
stepmother in their red coats children’s book, dated February 10,
1993. I did the math quickly: I would
and marched up to the attic to hunt have been seven, my sister four.
for Christmas ornaments.
The manuscript was titled The
From the attic window, the moon- Evil Stepmother (Who Wasn’t). It’s
light on the snow outside made the the story of a little girl who loses her
trees look like construction paper cut- mother to cancer. Her father soon
outs of themselves. Mom and Dad had remarries, and at Christmas, the girl
built the house on an old Christmas returns home to find her stepmother
tree farm. “Isn’t it wonderful to be sur- crying with an ornament in her hands:
rounded by Christmas all year long?” a star with a woman’s photograph.
Mom would joke. Now her words The stepmother reveals that she lost
seemed more like a reminder of what her mother, too, and always misses
we once had. Dad was putting the her most at Christmas.
house on the market come summer.
I read Mom’s book under the bare
Up in the attic, I headed toward a bulb in the attic, surrounded by her
box promisingly labeled “Christmas” things, and wondered why she had
in Sharpie. Moving aside wooden been moved to write it. She was years
cranberry strands from Mom’s peak away from her own diagnosis at the
New England craft phase, an unusual time. Did part of her always know? Did
yellowed envelope caught my eye. losing her brother, whose dog tags were
The return address on it was a famous returned from Vietnam at Christmas-
publishing house in Boston. time the year before I was born, inspire
it? She wasn’t around to ask. There was
My mother had been an editor be- no stepmother, evil or otherwise, in our
fore I was born but had given up her lives. I packed the manuscript away,
located the ornaments I came for, and
forgot about Mom’s book in the crazi-
ness of the move that summer.

Without the home that had been
the anchor for so many memories, I
cut Christmas loose. I began to avoid
the ringing bells of the Salvation
Army—even, for a while, the color red.
Most of all, I avoided holiday music.

66 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Cover Story Reader’s Digest

I shopped online to ensure a carol caregiver for her mother as she slowly
couldn’t catch me unawares. slipped away from Alzheimer’s.

That changed in December 2017. “Do you see this coat?” she asked,
Dad told me he was seeing someone. referring to the red swing coat I had
Could he bring her to Christmas? complimented earlier. “It was my
mom’s. Your dad tells me your mother
“Of course,” I said, stunned but had a red coat too. Maybe we can
happy. wear them together sometime?”

We hugged each other shyly when She handed me a small package. I
we first met. Soon, she had Dad and unwrapped the tissue paper to reveal
me laughing. It was going so well, the the earrings I had been holding at
three of us went to a nearby Marshalls the store. I remembered the long-ago
to pick out gifts. That’s when “White scene from Mom’s book and hugged
Christmas” began to play over the this woman who made my dad happy,
store’s speakers. I froze. It was the who was offering us a second chance
song Mom sang to me as a child to at Christmas.
get me to sleep, the closest sound on
earth to her voice. The earrings I was A year later, my sister and I were
holding in my hands blurred as tears maids of honor at Dad’s wedding.
streamed down my face. I was morti- This past December, I hosted my first
fied. Dad was mortified. I left the ear- Christmas in New York. We decorated
rings and ran for the safety of the car, with ornaments old and new before
hoping Dad’s girlfriend didn’t notice. taking in the city’s holiday lights. My
stepmother and I walked arm in arm
We got home, and I went to my room down Broadway in our mothers’ robin-
to pull myself together. There was a red coats, cherished reminders of the
knock on the door: Dad’s girlfriend. stylish women who raised us. RD

“Can I come in?” Copyright © 2020 by JessiCa pearCe rotondi. she is
“Sure.” the author of What We inherit: a seCret War and a
She told me that Christmas was family’s searCh for ansWers.
hard for her too. That she had been a

The Abominable Snowwoman
According to Guinness World Records, the “tallest snowperson”
in American history was actually a woman. Olympia, completed in
February 2008 in Bethel, Maine, was 122 feet one inch tall. Her eyelashes
were made of skis, the buttons were truck tires, and her arms were
fashioned from 30-foot spruce trees. She was about 11 feet taller than
the Statue of Liberty, though she had a much shorter life span.

Rd.com 67

Reader’s Digest

68 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 illustration by Mark Smith

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

DON’T GO INTO THE

A dream honeymoon hike to the rim of a jungle crater
ends with a terrible fall. Now a young bride must get her

severely injured husband medical care—by herself.

By Nicholas Hune-Brown

3-6-1-6-6-7-5-1-3

Rd.com 69

Reader’s Digest Drama in Real Life
70 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Acaimie, with n a steamy
Clay on their morning in July,
wedding day—a Clay and Acai-
preview of her mie (pronounced
“Ah-C AY-me e”)
strength Chastain arrived
at the base of Mount
Liamuiga on the Ca-
ribbean island of St. Kitts,
ready for their first climb as
husband and wife. They had married
just five days earlier back home in
Crawfordsville, Indiana, the culmina-
tion of a storybook romance. Clay, age
23, and Acaimie, age 25, had met at
Purdue University, at a square dance
held for Clay’s Christian fraternity and
Acaimie’s Christian sorority. Clay—a
handsome farmer’s son with a charm-
ing, puppy-dog energy—was immedi-
ately smitten by Acaimie’s beguiling
smile. They’d lasted through college
and the tough years after, when Acai-
mie moved to Illinois for work as a
store manager and Clay finished his
master’s degree in swine nutrition
back at Purdue. They took turns en-
during the weekly five-hour drives to
see each other, but they were devoted
and slightly old-fashioned—they re-
fused to live together in the house

Rd.com 71

Reader’s Digest

they’d bought together in Indianapolis narrow path taking them through previous spread: sally jane steffy
until after their wedding. tropical growth so lush you couldn’t
see the sky. Vervet monkeys chat­
Like any good couple, they had tered in the trees; the air was thick
their complementary differences. and humid.
Acaimie had always been the worrier.
“A realist,” she says. “A pessimist,” Clay It took them nearly three hours
replies. She liked order and structure. to reach the peak, but the view—the
She wasn’t just fastidious about wash­ view!—made it all worthwhile. The is­
ing her sheets once a week; she did it land of St. Kitts stretched before them,
at the same time every Saturday. Clay, the green rain forest carpet cascading
on the other hand, was a perpetual down toward the sapphire Caribbean
optimist—maddeningly carefree and water. They may have been tired and
easygoing, always certain that things sweaty—Clay’s red bandanna was
would turn out just fine. soaked—but they couldn’t have been
happier as they ate their sandwiches,
So it was Clay who wanted to take took a few selfies, and walked around
a day of their Caribbean honeymoon the rim of the volcano completely
and spend it scaling Mount Lia­ alone.
muiga. The highest point on St. Kitts,
Liamuiga is also a dormant volcano That’s when Clay saw it: a small
that starts in the clouds and plunges trail, semi­hidden beneath plant life,
down to meet the sea. Called Mount that led into the volcano’s crater, a
Misery by the British who colonized bowl of green with cloud forest giv­
the island, it is a popular day hike for ing way to a grassy meadow. A series
vacationers looking for adventure. of screw eyes had been drilled into
the rocks, with ropes that led down.
The couple, dressed in T­shirts and For Clay, the sight was unbearably
sneakers, arrived for their journey in inviting. It felt like a secret entrance
a rental car expecting to find more in­ to a primeval paradise. Acaimie was
formation on­site. Instead, they found less enthusiastic. The trail was steep,
an empty dirt parking lot with just a and she was afraid of heights, but she
small plaque marking the trailhead. gamely followed Clay’s lead. After just
They made their way up anyway, the a few minutes of descent, though,
she’d had enough. She told her hus­
band she’d wait on the rocks just off
the trail while he went exploring. “Just
be quick,” she said as she watched
him set off on the precipitous path,
zigzagging while clutching the rope.

A few minutes later, she heard a

72 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Drama in Real Life

Clay on top of
the world,
moments

before his fall

courtesy acaimie chastain crash—a noise that sounded like a her worst worries. Her phone wasn’t
large branch snapping, followed by getting a signal, and her cries for help
the sound of something big rolling were met with only silence. “Clay!”
downhill. “Clay?” she called. Silence. she shouted as loud as she could.
“Clay, are you OK?”
Acaimie fought back a flutter of
panic. She hadn’t heard anyone call Acaimie gripped the rope and be-
out, after all. The sound might have gan scrambling down the trail. When
been anything. A few minutes later, the path became too steep, she slid
she heard something faint that could on her butt, her legs and arms getting
have been a human voice. She leaned bruised and scraped in the process.
forward, craning her neck. Then she Then, just off the trail, she saw a flash
heard it again, and this time she was of red. It was Clay’s bandanna. And
certain: It was Clay, speaking in an next to it was his cell phone.
eerily childish tone she hardly rec-
ognized, calling for help from deep She grabbed both and continued
within the crater. down, screaming for Clay all the way.

As she looked over the lip of the “Help,” he said in that strange voice.
volcano, she tried to suppress some of “I’m coming! Stay where you are,”
she said. Finally she spotted his white

Rd.com 73

Reader’s Digest

shirt through the trees. She wanted to stumbled forward, and Acaimie put
prepare for what she was going to see, his hands on the rope. She told him
worried that if he were badly injured to hold tight as she placed Clay in
the sight of him would put her into a front of her and pushed him from be-
state of shock. “Tell me what’s wrong,” hind. He lurched forward, flailing like
she said as she approached. a drunk, but he seemed able to con-
trol his limbs just well enough to fol-
“I don’t know,” he said weakly. low Acaimie’s directions. When they
Clay was sitting hunched over reached a particularly steep section,
with his head in his hands, his back she bent down, picked up his feet,
to Acaimie. When she got closer, she put them in good footholds so he
could see that he was bleeding from wouldn’t slip, and pushed again.
the back of his head, and his neck
and shoulders were scraped. Walking Inch by inch, step by step, they
around him, she saw that he’d been climbed. After what couldn’t have
vomiting. Blood ran down his face. been more than half an hour but felt
Perhaps the rope he’d been hold- like forever, they reached the top.
ing had snapped, or maybe he’d just “Help!” Acaimie yelled. She’d hoped
missed a step, but it was clear he’d
fallen a long way. He was badly con-
cussed. “Where are we?” he asked.
She explained they were on a hike on
St. Kitts. “Why aren’t you calling for
help?” he asked. Their phones weren’t
getting cell service, she told him. He
seemed to take that in. Then, 30 sec-
onds later: “Where are we?”
Acaimie tried to clear her mind.
They were alone in the volcano with-
out cell service. There was only one
thing to do: She needed to drag him
out somehow.
“Look at me, Clay,” she said. He
looked through her, his eyes swim-
ming. “We’re going to have to climb
out of here, and you’re going to have
to listen to me.”
Acaimie hoisted Clay shakily to his
feet. He had no balance and couldn’t
support himself. The two of them

74 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

A medevac plane Drama in Real Life
transported Clay
from St. Kitts back to almost began running down the hill
the United States. because of this lack of control and
Acaimie had to struggle to make sure
he didn’t send them crashing into the
trees. In particularly steep sections,
she sat Clay down, shuffled ahead of
him, and had him slide into her arms.

As they made their way, the sun was
sinking lower in the sky and Acaimie’s
mind raced. The path was confusing
and indistinct in places, with smaller
trails branching off into the wilder-
ness. What if they got lost, she won-
dered. Would Clay survive the night?

She checked her phone again. Still
no signal.

courtesy acaimie chastain that once they reached the top they’d After more than two hours, Clay
find a group of hikers, but the trail was seemed to be getting worse. He was
empty. There was no choice but to try losing what little control he’d had over
to make it back to the trailhead alone. his body. Every ten minutes or so he’d
It was about 12:30. It had taken them stop, collapse on the trail, and begin
three hours to reach the summit. How vomiting blood. “I want to sleep,”
long, she wondered, would it take he mumbled now, shutting his eyes.
them to reach their car? Acaimie urged him to keep moving.
“You’re doing such a good job. I’m so
Putting her husband’s arm over her proud of you,” she kept repeating, un-
shoulder, Acaimie led him back down sure if any of it was getting through to
the trail. It was almost like a black- her husband. Once again she checked
diamond ski run—sheer and winding her phone. No signal.
as it cut back and forth through rain
forest so thick she could never see It dawned on her that maybe she
more than a few yards ahead. Clay’s should leave Clay there and run ahead
legs flopped beneath him; at times he

Rd.com 75

Reader’s Digest

sound of another person’s

voice. She described what

had happened—the fall,

the vomiting, the blood,

the disorientation. The

dispatcher, barely audible,

asked whether they were

able to make it to the trail-

head, or did they need a

helicopter? Acaimie looked

around. With the thick cov-

ering, there was no way a

helicopter could land any-

where near them. She told

him they’d keep trying to

make their way down.

But as they moved for-

ward, she became more

Clay, here in a scared. Clay’s condition
St. Kitts hospital, was continuing to deterio-
rate. He could hardly use his
has recovered arms and legs. At one point,
from most of Acaimie couldn’t support
his injuries. him and gravity took over,

sending him flying out of her

and get help. But one look at him and arms and rolling down the hill, smash-

she nixed that idea. She worried that ing into a tree. He lay there in a heap.

in his state, he might wander off into Then he started vomiting blood again.

the wilderness or stumble down the She dialed 911 once more. “If the

trail and injure himself. She needed paramedics are anywhere near the trail,

him to keep going. they need to start heading up now!”

They continued on—Acaimie guid- she told the dispatcher. When she hung courtesy acaimie chastain

ing Clay, Clay barely able to move up, she looked down the trail, calling

forward. After hours of painful but out for help as loudly as she could un-

exhausting progress, they took a til her voice grew raspy. Clay was get-

break. She instinctively pulled out ting cold and clammy. She didn’t know

her phone to check for a signal. Yes! whether they could go any farther.

It was faint, but it might work. She Then she heard something. It was

dialed 911 and heard the welcome faint and could have been almost

76 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Drama in Real Life

anything. She didn’t move a muscle, rehab and visits with specialists, in­
afraid she might miss it if it came cluding a neurosurgeon and an audi­
again. ologist. But he was alive. And as his
mind slowly cleared and the enormity
“Hello!” someone called out. of what he had endured became ap­
Acaimie leaped up. “We’re here!” parent, Clay was amazed at what his
she yelled as two paramedics came wife had done for him.
into view. “We’re here!”
The paramedics wrapped Clay’s Today, the couple are in their new
arms around their shoulders, and home in Indianapolis. Nearly a year
then each took a leg. In this cumber­ later, Clay has regained the balance he
some manner, they carefully carried lost, but he’s now deaf in one ear. “It’s
Clay down the mountain to the ambu­ really not that bad, a minor inconve­
lance waiting at the trailhead. Acaimie nience at worst,” he says, ever positive.
sat in the front of the ambulance—she
was hyperventilating, and her hands When Clay and Acaimie think about
eventually became numb from lack of what happened in St. Kitts, it’s with
oxygen. She listened in horror as the a strange mix of emotions. A honey­
paramedic in the back yelled to the moon is supposed to be a chance
driver, “He’s still vomiting blood; we for connection—an island of time in
need to get to the hospital!” the midst of a busy life for people to
truly get to know each other. But even
At the emergency room, doctors dis­ though their honeymoon had turned
covered just how vast Clay’s injuries into a nightmare, it cemented their re­
were. They included a bad concussion, lationship. The words “in sickness and
a fractured vertebra, a fractured skull, in health” were no longer just a quaint
and a spinal fluid leak. refrain said in front of friends. To see
one’s partner under the most awful
Clay spent a painful week recu­ conditions imaginable had created
perating in a St. Kitts hospital before a kind of intimacy that was different
being medevaced to a hospital in Flor­ from what they’d had before.
ida, where doctors placed a shunt in
his spinal cord to drain excess fluid. “We got shell­shocked, but in a
After nine days, he flew home to In­ good way,” says Clay today. “You real­
diana for several months of physical ize what you have. And you become
so thankful.” RD

Would You Buy a Watch from This Man?
Some celebrities will endorse just about anything. One gung-ho hawker was
Mark Twain. He lent his name to a brand of cigars, whiskey, watches, and flour.

Rd.com 77

INSPIRATION

Finding the
Silver Lining

This year, many of us have new
appreciation for life’s simpler joys.
RD readers share their discoveries.

illustrations by Shout

Reader’s Digest

I think for so many, the were canceled. No more pit-stopping
at various stores. The result was a
silver lining should be a simple bigger wallet and fewer things. I
message, that happiness is found at ended up saving (and still am) so
home and from within. I’m thankful much more money because I’m not
for all the traveling my spouse and spending sporadically, and I’m not
I got to do in our 45 years together. buying things that we don’t need. If I
We saw so many countries and met keep this up, I’ll be able to pay off my
interesting people. But we never car in another year, instead of three.
knew the contentment we had right —Angela Eckhart
here. Dusting off the Scrabble board Danielsville, Pennsylvania
we’d bought in ’75 and taking it out
on the back screened-in porch was so As the pandemic started
enjoyable—with the bonus of seeing
and hearing all the birds chirping! out, our family had the same
—Margaret Waggoner concerns as anyone, but on Easter
Milton, Florida Sunday our daughter and son-in-law
announced they were expecting a
My daughter told me baby in December. This is our first
grandchild, and we were elated.
that people in nursing homes and The next few months, our thoughts
assisted living centers were looking turned toward our little hope for the
for pen pals to help them combat future. Each day seemed brighter!
the loneliness brought on by the Fast-forward to July 5, when our
COVID-19 pandemic. I have always son announced that he and his
loved to write and receive letters, but girlfriend had just gotten engaged.
a handwritten letter has become a More hope for the future! My family
rarity. So I jumped on the opportunity has truly been blessed. God is
to resurrect this passion of mine. Ini- present. God is powerful. God is
tially, I sent out three letters to three good. Even in a pandemic.
assisted living facilities in three states. —K.G.
I received one reply from a wonderful Branchville, New Jersey
man who lives in New Hampshire. So
far we have exchanged three letters, I have rediscovered the
and I have made a new friend.
—E.S. love of running outside early in
via rd.com the morning. I had abandoned run-
ning outdoors for the convenience
Because of quarantine and relatively hassle-free experience
of running on a machine. Inevitably,
measures, I no longer run as many the TV was tuned to news channels.
errands, and our yearly vacations

Rd.com | dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 79

Reader’s Digest

Every day, after auto-running my and spent hours organizing photos.
eight miles, I was left hot, sweaty, I reconnected with family members
and a bit stressed out with all of the long gone, laughed over fun memo-
negativity. With gyms and fitness ries, revisited places traveled, shed
centers closed, I was forced to start tears at the losses, smiled at the bless-
running outdoors very early in the ings. And I created memory albums
morning. What a delight! I often wit- for each of my six grandchildren, from
ness the sun breaking the horizon, their birth to the present. With each
wild turkeys sitting high up in a can- photo, I could once again hold them
yon pass, and, best of all, a soothing, in my arms, bake cookies, rejoice in
almost meditative state of mindful- their accomplishments, and feel the
ness as I immerse myself in nature. warmth of their hugs and kisses.
—Roger Andersen —Carol Murray

Roseville, California Lowville, New York

My daughter started kinder- I’m no longer bald, and by the

garten this fall, but this spring I got grace of God, I’m still here! In April
to work one-on-one with her on her 2019, I was diagnosed with cancer
math, reading, writing, science, and after a trip to the ER for extreme
social studies. We also built giant swelling and pain in my abdomen.
forts, played lots of games, solved To say I was shocked was an under-
many puzzles, and did a host of other statement. I was admitted to the
things we wouldn’t do on our normal hospital and shortly thereafter began
schedule. I felt truly blessed to have chemo treatments for stage 2 diffuse
been able to spend the time with her. large B-cell lymphoma. My husband
—Erika Ciavattone immediately stocked up on hand
Chesterfield, Michigan sanitizer, gloves, and toilet paper
(you have to drink a lot of fluid when
Can I be thankful for having you are trying to flush the chemo
from your system). Because of my
more time to play video games? compromised immune system, I also
To me, it’s a silver lining. refrained from hugging and kissing
—N.A. friends and family and spent quite a
via rd.com bit of time alone. I finished treatment
last August and have been in remis-
In the beginning of the sion ever since. Little did I know that
I was “in training” for COVID-19!
COVID-19 shutdown, I became so de- —Diana tosse
pressed. I missed my activities, fam-
ily, friends. Turning the television off, Loveland, Ohio
I pulled out shoebox upon shoebox

80 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Inspiration

The local craft store remained

open during lockdown, and I was
invited to take kits home to make
masks for health-care workers. At
first, I hesitated, since I don’t own
a sewing machine. But that did not
stop me. From the middle of April
until the middle of July, I made
42 masks, all sewn by hand. What
a joy to do my part to support first
responders.
—Kathleen Zurenko
Daytona Beach, Florida

My yard has never looked

any better than it does now. I spend
part of the mornings outside every
day!
—Sharon Devora
Pipe Creek, Texas

My husband and I had In most neighborhoods

talked about getting a dog when in Silicon Valley, everybody is busy,
we retired and this seemed like the and our court is no exception. In
right time. We found a cute seven- the 20 years we’ve lived here, we’ve
pound poodle-terrier mix named known our neighbors enough to wave
Coco at the shelter. The rescue rep- as we drive in and out of our garages
resentative kept stressing to me that or walk the dogs. Everybody was
she was a ten-year-old “senior” dog. friendly, only very busy with work
My response was, “No problem. and school. Then the quarantine
We’re seniors too!” Now I have a began, and a few of us decided to
happy reason to get out of bed every meet each afternoon in the middle
morning at 6:30, when I take her of the street for the five o’clock wave.
for a walk. She is full of energy for a Since then, just about everybody on
senior. She makes us both laugh and the court comes out every afternoon
has helped us find our smiles. for casual conversation. Months later,
—Anne Chance we are no longer just neighbors but
Venice, Florida friends. We know about the children
and how they are handling the loss

Rd.com 81

Reader’s Digest Inspiration

of school. We know the neighbor who and father bird were amazingly
likes to bake bread. We know about attentive parents. These birds have
the daughter who loves horses and been a highlight of my year.
the one who belongs to a cheer team. —Wynne Smith
We have watched the baby grow into Spartanburg, South Carolina
a toddler. Best of all, we know we can
count on each other in time of need. My husband has been retired
That is a comfort in this difficult time.
—Cathy Kordsmeier a while, and I retired in October
Los Altos, California 2018. We love each other, but we are
quite independent, with our own
Because I have been at interests and schedules, so when the
lockdowns began, I wasn’t sure what
home 24/7, I watched a pair of barn to expect. The pandemic has been
swallows raise their young on my heartbreaking for those who’ve lost
front porch. Although this may not loved ones or jobs. But our silver
sound like much, I watched the en- lining is that my husband and I have
tire process, from the parents select- grown closer than ever through this
ing a place to build two side-by-side time of isolation. We encourage each
intricate mud nests (where I could other whenever one of us begins
easily see them through my front feeling discouraged. We stay engaged
window), to their laying and hatch- with family and friends, whether
ing the eggs, feeding the young ba- through digital connections or so-
bies, raising them to maturity, and cially distanced encounters. Our
very patiently teaching them to fly on love for each other—our apprecia-
the porch (with the aid of the porch tion for each other—has continued
light to land on). I then watched to grow during this unusual year,
them fly around the yard in a larger and that’s something for which I
area every day and return to the am deeply grateful. RD
nests every night to sleep together— —Mindi McKenna
at least for the first week. The mother Kansas City, Missouri

A View from the North
Canada and America are closer than friends. We’re more like

siblings. We have shared parentage, though we took
different paths in our later years. We became the stay-at-home type,

and you grew to be a little more rebellious.

Justin trudeau, Prime minister of Canada

82 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Reader’s Digest

“This is just a prototype, of course, but I can say that our previous
tests on mice were extremely encouraging.”

Lee Lorenz/cartooncoLLections.com Humor in requisition order that inviting water and said
came straight from his to my aircraft com-
UNIFORM chief. “I need,” he said, mander, “That lagoon
“a fallopian tube.” looks like a great place
Military newbies often to go for a swim.”
find their gullibility The storekeeper,
preyed upon by prank- remarkably keeping Unimpressed, he an-
sters who outrank a straight face, asked, swered, “I don’t bother
them. Case in point: “What size?” the sharks in the la-
While serving on goon, and they don’t
the USS Turner Joy, “I don’t know.” bother me in the bar.”
a naive young sailor “Go find out.” —Carl Stevenson
came rushing into —Richard E. Asche Bend, Oregon
our supply office Port Orchard,
with an important Washington Your funny military
story could be worth
Hot and sweaty after $$$. For details, go to
landing the Air Force rd.com/submit.
C-97 on Wake Island,
I took one look at that

Rd.com 83

HEALTH

T Double Triple
H
E

84 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 Photographs by Ryan Segedi

Reader’s Digest

Sarah McPharlin
(left) and Daru
Smith each
received three
new organs.

A triple transplant—heart, liver, kidney—is among the
rarest of medical procedures. In one 48-hour stretch,
a team of doctors performed two back-to-back.

By Bryan Smith From ChiCago

Rd.com 85

Daru Smith was talking to his doc- called sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune
tor and sister one day in December disease that can cause the body to
2018 when he began to die. He saw overproduce certain cells that all but
their forms grow dim, a dark curtain shut down organs—in Daru’s case, the
coming down on them and himself heart, liver, and kidneys.
in his fluorescent-lit hospital room at
University of Chicago Medicine. Then That meant Daru needed all three
the 29-year-old was above it all, look- vital organs replaced, a procedure so
ing into a hole in the ground where complex and risky that only 15 had
a torrent of water was swirling like a been performed in the country at that
giant draining sink. point. And he would need the rarest of
donors, one with three healthy organs
And then he was in a hallway. At the compatible with Daru’s blood type
end of it glowed a white light. He felt and strong enough to support his six-
at peace. No more heart palpitations, foot-one-inch body.
no flutters, no aches. He saw pictures
on a wall. Scenes from his life. His son Still unconscious, Daru continued to
being born. It felt good, the light. Un- fight the light. Then his eyes fluttered
til Daru realized: This is what happens and opened. “Hey, where’d you go?”
when you die. He turned around and Daru’s cardiologist, Bryan Smith, said.
began to run. The light pulled him. I “Thought we lost you for a second.”
gotta fight, he said to himself.
SARAH MCPHARLIN SAT in a spare
Daru had been sick. A few weeks room at UChicago Medicine, waiting
earlier, he’d gone to the emergency to plead for her life. She was there
room with a cold he couldn’t shake. to meet with the center’s transplant
But tests showed it was much more evaluation team.
than that. Daru was in cardiogenic
shock, a condition in which the heart As different as Sarah was from
can’t pump enough blood to meet the Daru—she’d grown up in a tree-lined
body’s needs. He also had something suburb of Detroit, gone to graduate
school, traveled the world; he was

86 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Health Reader’s Digest

The surgeons (from left):
Yolanda Becker (kidney),
Talia Baker (liver), and
Valluvan Jeevanandam (heart)

Rd.com 87

Reader’s Digest

raised by a mother who managed a at first skeptical about Sarah’s case.
Harold’s Chicken Shack in Chicago, She was as pale as the hospital sheets.
where he worked until he found a She had almost no muscle mass. Her
better-paying job as a truck driver— chest seemed to have collapsed in on
they were, in more important ways, itself, while fluid swelled her arms and
alike. abdomen. She could barely speak a
sentence without gasping for breath.
Like Daru, Sarah was 29. A rare But when Dr. Uriel asked what she
autoimmune disease—an inflam- would do post-transplant, the words
matory condition called giant cell she could get out moved him.
myocarditis—had attacked her heart.
At 12, Sarah had had a heart transplant, She’d travel, she said, maybe to
but over the years the replacement or- Europe, where she had visited as a
gan also began to fail. Surgeons had to student in high school. She’d restart
open her chest five more times to re- her career as an occupational thera-
pair ongoing problems. Complications pist. Beyond that? She loved spend-
from years of procedures and medica- ing time with her family. They were
tions had all but destroyed her liver
and kidneys. Her only hope, too, lay in Does it make sense to
a triple transplant. use three organs on
a single long shot?
But there were some ugly realities
that needed to be addressed: The de- inseparable. Oh, and there would be
gree of difficulty of a heart transplant Michigan State games! How could she
doubles with each previous cardiac forget about her alma mater?
operation. Sarah’s numerous proce-
dures had left her heart buried in scar Before the day was out, Sarah had
tissue. This “hostile” chest, as sur- spoken with nearly 30 members of
geons call it, makes it harder for them the transplant evaluation team. After-
to locate the arteries and veins they ward, they unanimously voted to
will need to disconnect and reattach. move forward, each one seeing what
What’s more, she was so physically Dr. Uriel saw: someone who, though
weak that doctors weren’t sure she facing death, radiated life.
could survive such a grueling surgery.
For both Sarah McPharlin and Daru
And then there’s a macabre math Smith, it was now a waiting game.
that goes into such decisions. A triple Waiting for organs to become avail-
transplant means using three organs able. Waiting, to put it in blunt terms,
that could potentially save three other for the right person to die.
patients. Does it make sense to use
them on a single long shot?

Heart specialist Nir Uriel, MD, was

88 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Health

But at their darkest point, a bright After hearing back from all the sur-
spot flickered: The two patients, just geons, Bucio called the attending phy-
two doors apart in the ICU, met. Over sician: “Tell Daru it’s time.”
the following weeks, a bond developed.
Sarah and Daru could be seen compar- “You ready?” Dr. Smith asked Daru
ing notes as they walked laps around as he walked into his room.
the floor together, challenging each
other on how many trips they could “For what?”
make, laughing at what they must look “Are you ready?” he repeated, smiling.
like in their gowns, with tubes and Now Daru smiled, too, the realiza-
machines trailing behind. Their go-to tion dawning on him.
phrase became “You got this.” “All right, then,” said Dr. Smith.
“Let’s do this.”
AT 3:15 P.M. on Tuesday, Decem-
ber 18, 2018, the pager of Jamie Bu- ON MOST DAYS, the white-tiled hall-
cio, lead coordinator of UChicago way just outside of operating room
Medicine’s organ procurement team, 5 west is deserted, save for the occa-
buzzed with an alert. A potential sional flock of surgeons, nurses, and
match for Daru had been declared orderlies. But on this day, December
brain-dead. The young man’s heart, 19, just before 3 p.m.—24 hours after
liver, and kidneys were intact and Jamie Bucio got the call—an unusu-
strong, and his family had agreed to ally large contingent of 20 medical staff
donate the organs. Bucio and her five- members milled about. The star of the
person team had one hour to respond show was the hospital’s head cardiac
with a preliminary acceptance of the surgeon, Valluvan Jeevanandam, MD.
organs—otherwise they would go to He’d be performing Daru’s heart trans-
the next patient on the waiting list. plant, the initial procedure upon which
the rest of the undertaking rested.
Every moment of that hour was
crucial. First, Bucio collected infor- As Dr. Jeevanandam and his team
mation on the organs: What kind of began prepping for the first leg of the
shape were they in? Were they good marathon surgery, two floors below,
matches? Then she and her team Daru was being wheeled away from
alerted the surgeons and the attend- his ICU room and his family. Mean-
ing physician, sending them medical while, three SUVs carrying the two sur-
records of the intended recipient. If gical teams—one for the heart and one
everyone approved, then and only for the liver and kidney—sped across
then would the patient be notified the city to retrieve the donor organs.
that a transplant was a go—and would Speed is of the essence. A heart needs
be happening in a matter of hours. to be implanted within six hours—and
ideally within four hours—of being re-
moved from a donor.

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Dr. Jeevanandam made his first in potassium. If all goes well, when
cut at 3:07 p.m., timing it to when the the clamp is released, the whoosh of
doctor at the other hospital began blood into the heart restores normal
removing the donor’s heart. Insert- levels of potassium and other electro-
ing the rib spreader, a stainless steel lytes, and the heart begins to beat. In
retractor used to lay bare the chest Daru’s case, the heart didn’t beat. Not
cavity, he began to crank slowly. Daru panicking, Dr. Jeevanandam picked
was then hooked up to the heart-lung up forceps and gently massaged the
bypass machine, the major arteries to heart, trying to “tickle” it back to life.
his heart clamped shut, leaving him Finally a dot began to hop up from
without a functioning heart for what the long, flat green line on the screen
would be 102 minutes, and then the across the room. With that, Dr. Jeeva-
removal process began. The donor nandam stepped back. Four hours af-
organ, packed in a Tupperware pickle ter beginning the surgery, his part was
jar, bathed in a preservation solution, done. It was 7:00 p.m.
and chilled in a medical box similar
to an Igloo cooler, arrived at 5:04 p.m. While Dr. Jeevanandam’s assistants
affixed drainage tubes and packed the
Daru’s sarcoidosis presented a area around the heart with gauze to ab-
complication for Dr. Jeevanandam. sorb blood, Talia Baker, MD, the sur-
A healthy person’s tissue is like sup- geon performing the liver transplant,
ple leather, which helps it fuse when and her team were already setting up.
sewn together. Much of Daru’s tissue
There are some 180 steps in per-
Dr. Jeevanandam forming a liver transplant. But Dr.
tried to “tickle” the Baker’s main challenge with Daru was
heart back to life. the state of his liver. A healthy liver has
the spongy consistency of a jellyfish,
was more like cardboard, so the doc- which makes it pliable. A cirrhotic, or
tor had to be extra careful not to rip it scarred, liver like Daru’s is firm, so ma-
while sewing in the new heart. nipulating it is more difficult, raising
the risk of damage to the tissue around
That accomplished, Daru was ready the organ when removing it.
to be taken off the bypass machine. In
transplant surgery, it’s always a tense With liver transplants, there’s also
moment when the aortic clamp is re- a fear that the absence of oxygen and
moved. To preserve a heart for trans- nutrient-rich blood can damage the
port, doctors fill it with a solution high newly transplanted organ once the
blood flow is restored. That damage
can cause the heart and lungs to col-
lapse, resulting in death. In Daru’s
case, though, the new liver handled

90 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

top and bottom: Courtesy of uChiCago mediCine. middle: Courtesy of sarah mCpharlin Health

Top: Daru having his post-op vitals
checked. Middle: Sarah and her
parents. Bottom: Dr. Jeevanandam
(left) checks in on Sarah (right).

the blood flow as it was supposed to.
At 11:46 p.m.—eight hours and 39

minutes after surgery began—the sec-
ond portion of his transplant was com-
plete. All that remained: the kidney.

Around that time, Bucio got a page
that stunned her: A young woman
in another state had been declared
brain-dead. She was a potential match
for Sarah, and she had three healthy
organs. Bucio called Dr. Smith, Sarah’s
attending physician: “Well, I guess no-
body’s getting any sleep for the next
48 hours.”

No hospital had ever performed two
triple transplants within a year, and
yet UChicago Medicine was preparing
to begin its second in just over a day.
Doctors and nurses would be work-
ing on little to no sleep. The surgeons
would need some 700 instruments for
each of the two triple transplants, all
of which would have to be cleaned,
sterilized, and inspected—no small
task since there were also three other
transplants happening at the hospital
at the time, one of which was a dou-
ble: kidney and liver. Was it even pos-
sible? It had to be. The offer of three
matching organs simply could not be
turned down.

Bucio had already sprung into
action, working out the logistics.

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Reader’s Digest

Daru and Sarah seven
months after their surgeries:
“I feel better than I have in
years,” says Sarah.

92 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Health

Because Sarah’s organs were com- navigate the minefield of drains and
ing from some distance, UChicago chest tubes and pacemaker wires left
Medicine would need two jets, plus in place by the previous two surgeons.
ground transportation to and from Dislodge any of the tubes or drains,
both airports. and she might not notice any internal
bleeding. Detach a pacemaker wire,
At 8:18 a.m. on December 20, Daru’s and the heart could develop a danger-
triple transplant was completed. Af- ous arrhythmia without her knowing.
ter more than 17 hours in surgery, he
was moved back to the ICU. Ten hours “I guess nobody’s
later, Sarah’s triple transplant began. getting any sleep for
the next 48 hours.”
As Dr. Jeevanandam had antici-
pated, the heart portion of Sarah’s sur- By the time her surgery was done,
gery required extra care, taking longer at 2:27 p.m. on Friday, December 21,
than Daru’s. The scar tissue that had Sarah had been on the table for more
built up in her chest from past surger- than 20 hours. UChicago had accom-
ies made hunting for the arteries and plished the unthinkable: two triple
veins seem like an archaeological dig. transplants in less than two days.
Just as an archaeologist uses little
brushes to carefully clear away dust JUST DAYS AFTER the surgery, Sarah
and debris, Dr. Jeevanandam had to was amazed by how good she felt. Be-
use special instruments to tease apart fore the transplant, she had gained
the tissue to find the arteries under- 45 pounds of water weight. It was nice
neath. A miscalculation of a single to have her normal legs again. She’d
millimeter with the scalpel could also felt out of breath and cold all the
cause a nick in the heart itself. time, a result of the poor circulation
caused by her failing heart. Now she
Sarah’s liver posed special chal- didn’t have to constantly be swaddled
lenges as well. Because she had been in a blanket or coat.
on immunosuppressive drugs for
most of her life, her tissues were frag- But the two patients’ recoveries
ile. Dr. Baker had to work slowly and were not without complications. Two
precisely, taking painstaking care with weeks after the transplant, Sarah reg-
each incision and suture. istered low magnesium levels, requir-
ing weekly infusions of the mineral,
Yolanda Becker, MD, was last up. which keeps the heartbeat steady and
And as the final surgeon, she had to
not only perform the kidney trans-
plant but also make sure the heart
and liver were still functioning, which
meant keeping a close eye on all of
Sarah’s vital signs. She also had to

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Reader’s Digest Health

maintains nerve and muscle func- transplant was worth it. “No one can
tions. She has also struggled with a relate to what it’s like walking around
low white blood cell count, neces- with three new organs,” Daru told
sitating booster shots. And yet she’s Reader’s Digest. But on these calls,
more active than ever. She exercises you have “people who truly under-
regularly, and last February she par- stand you, from your risk factors to
ticipated in Hustle Chicago, a charity your benefits.”
stair climb event to the very top of
the former John Hancock Building, A few days after Sarah’s discharge,
94 floors up. on January 7, 2019, Daru was granted
his own release from the hospital he’d
As for Daru, a month after the op- called home for eight weeks. As he
eration, surgeons placed a stent in was wheeled through the ICU toward
one of his bile ducts to open up a the elevator, nurses, doctors, and ad-
blocked passageway. Other than that, ministrative staff clapped and shouted
he’s been working out and “actually goodbyes.
seeing results.”
“You are loved here,” the orderly
Sarah and Daru had intended to pushing his wheelchair said.
meet up after leaving the hospital,
but life and eventually the COVID-19 They turned one corner. And then
pandemic conspired against them. another. And then they stood look-
Instead, Sarah sends Daru banana ing down a final hallway. At the end
bread, and they text each other three of it shone what looked like a bright
to four times a week. They also have white light. The orderly pushed him
a regular group chat with two other forward. And as he did, the source
triple organ recipients, both of whom became clear: a set of white double
had their operations after Sarah and doors illuminated by bright disks of
Daru. light in the ceiling. The white grew
brighter until Daru was on the other
Daru appreciates the camaraderie. side, where he saw a familiar car and
There were days when the pain and his sister standing beside it, smiling,
the boundaries placed upon him due waiting to take him home to his son. RD
to his compromised immune system
made him wonder whether the triple ChiCago (September 2019), Copyright © 2019
by troNC (tribuNe).

Happy Michael King Day!
Little Martin Luther King Jr. was called Michael, the name on his birth certificate.
Inspired by a trip to Germany in 1934, King’s father, Michael Sr., changed his own

name to Martin Luther King. Then he changed his five-year-old son’s too.

94 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021

Reader’s Digest

LAUGH LINES

My wife got mad at My little sister
me for buying the discovered we
family-size pack of have different
Oreos for just the
two of us and I was dads; now
like, “Are we or are she’s trying to
we not a family?” say we’re just

— @Average_Dad1 friends ...
— @ntnastyy
Instead of
“XOXOXOXOX” Opening gifts
my mom ends every that say “From
Mom and Dad”
e-mail with and knowing that
“MOMOMOMOM.” Dad is going to be
just as surprised
— @ErinBode
as you are.
mjrodafotografia/getty images My uncle only It’s All — @kelllicopter
polished the front Relatives
My grandmother
half of his car sewed and
because it was the
only part he saw crocheted until
when he drove it. she was into her
90s and her hands
— @GalgosRGreat just couldn’t do it
any longer. So
don’t expect me

to be putting
this phone down

anytime soon.
— @Darlainky

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Reader’s Digest

WISH LIST
This season, hot
ticket items don’t
have to come with
high price tags.

96 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021 Photographs by Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh

YOUR MONEY

2020

Holiday
Shopping

Guide

In this most unusual year, the gift
of giving will feel especially good.
These tips can help make the season
merry and bright for everyone.

By Jody L. Rohlena

From what’s under the tree to how
it got there, many of our holiday
shopping traditions look very
different this year. A survey of Ameri-
can shoppers by the consulting firm
McKinsey & Company found that more
than 75 percent of us have altered our
shopping habits in 2020—embracing
new brands, stores, or ways to save—
and most intend to keep them up.
Celebrating this season will clearly
require unwrapping new strategies.
Here are the best we’ve found.

Rd.com 97

Reader’s Digest Your Money

What’s Different This Year individual stores inside). If you’d StyliSt: Jacqueline Draper for tHiS repreSentS
rather keep your distance from other
Hot Ticket Items May Be Extra Hot shoppers but you still want to pick up
Some companies have scaled back items locally, order ahead and pick up
their holiday ordering this year to trim curbside. Many stores offer this option
inventory, so popular products might when you buy online, or you can call
sell out fast—in stores and online. in an order and ask whether an em-
(For more tips on this season’s hot ployee will run your purchase outside
ticket items, see “What Gifts to Buy to you. To avoid parking lot chaos, try
& Where to Find Them,” starting on to pick up your purchases first thing
page 101.) So if you see a good price in the morning or later in the evening,
for an item on your list, be sure to grab when wait times should be shorter.
it. And plan to ship gifts at least two
weeks before Christmas Eve. Outlets Are Online Too
If one of your holiday shopping
Online Sales Will Start Early traditions is a trip to the outlets,
Black Friday in stores has been over- you can still experience the thrill
taken in recent years by more and of the bargain hunt—from home.
more deals appearing online, not just Shoppremiumoutlets.com is the vir-
on Cyber Monday but during all of tual version of the country’s largest
what’s now known as Cyber Week. This outlet company. In some ways, it’s
year, it may be more like Cyber Season, even better than an in-person trip
because you can shop by item or cat-
Look for egory and immediately see what dif-
rock-bottom prices ferent retailers have in stock, rather
than going store to store (even if, for
as some stores some of us, that’s part of the fun). For
liquidate. example, search women’s handbags
and see offerings from Kate Spade,
with online promotions and sales start- Michael Kors, Burberry, and more
ing right after Halloween. (See “When all in one window to easily compare,
to Shop,” next page.) With concerns choose, and buy.
about crowds, retailers will likely save
a lot of their inventory for online sales. A Few Old Favorites May Not
Be Around Much Longer
More Stores Offer Curbside Pickup Among the retail stalwarts that filed
Malls are open, though they may for bankruptcy this year: JCPenney,
be limiting capacity (as are some J. Crew, Gordmans, Lord & Taylor,
New York and Company, and Tuesday

98 Dec 2020 ✦ Jan 2021