Category: books, literature, arts

Say Goodbye for Now- a book review

This post reviews Say Goodby for Now. Dr. Lucy lives alone except for the menagerie of injured animals she has doctored back to life. She likes her life the way it is, until she opens her home to three unexpected and unlikely guests. The book references important historical events.

Say Goodbye for Now

A novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Published by Lake Union Publishers
(This post contains affiliate links.)

The Plot of Say Goodbye for Now

In 1959, Dr. Lucille Armstrong, or Dr. Lucy as she is called, practices medicine of sorts in a small Texas town. Although she is a “doctor of human beings”, she spends most of her time taking care of stray and injured animals.

To support them and herself, she occasionally treats people; “ it’s not a hobby, I do it for the money.” But because “people there didn’t take well to a woman doctor”, her patients are not always the town’s model citizens.

Dr. Lucy lives alone except for the menagerie of injured animals she has doctored back to life. She likes her life the way it is, until she opens her home to three  unexpected and unlikely guests.

Their effect on her life causes her to realize she doesn’t like being alone, it was “just better than being with most of the people I’ve known.”

SAY GOODBYE FOR NOW- A Novel
SAY GOODBYE FOR NOW by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Two of them were boys, Pete and Justin, who learn they live in a world where “just walking down the street together can get you viciously beaten.”

The other, Calvin, a man who quit smoking, helps her learn to trust again. He remembers the day he quit because it was the day the Surgeon General announced smoking is harmful to health.

My Thoughts and Reactions

I  have reviewed several medical books, most of them non-fiction. I also enjoy medical fiction and have read many, mostly along the lines of medical mystery/thriller/drama. Probably the best known medical fiction are those written by physicians –

This book is different. I identified with the main character, a woman physician. Like her, I entered medicine when there were not many women physicians.

 I like that she doesn’t read the newspaper because “the news breaks my heart.” (It breaks mine too but I still read it.)  Dr. Lucy saves letters; not just the ones she receives, but copies of the ones she writes.

 

What this book is about

As is true in the practice of medicine, the main subject of this book is pain, along with loss, grief, injustice, loneliness, fear, and anger.

But it is equally about resilience, recovery, friendship, love, sacrifice, and healing .

Almost like a surgeon, the author skillfully uses words to dissect and repair intense human interactions and emotions.

man and woman holding the letters L O V E
photo from Lightstock.com

Like most good fiction, this book left me feeling  I had made new friends. They were not perfect people , but none of my real friends or I are either. Each character faced the “rottenness of the world”, finding a way to live in it anyway and doctoring each other back to health.

The author, Catherine Ryan Hyde

The book intrigued me even more when I learned the author, Catherine Ryan Hyde, has written over 30 books, including Pay It Forward  (1999) named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association.

The book became a major motion picture, Pay It Forward.

In 2000 Ms. Hyde  founded the Pay It Forward Foundation, a 501 c3 non-Profit Organization dedicated to promoting opportunities to do just that.

“The philosophy of Pay It Forward is that through acts of kindness among strangers, we all foster a more caring society. In the book, Reuben St. Clair, a social studies teacher in Atascadero, California, challenges his students to “Change the world”. That’s something we would all like to do, right? What if we could change the world, even in some small way?

One of the students in the class is Trevor, who takes the challenge to heart. As he goes about his day, he wonders what he could do, just a twelve year old student, to change the world. He starts by showing kindness to a stranger, and from there, moves on to the next person he can help.”

Loving vs the Commonwealth of Virginia court case

Besides mentioning the Surgeon General’s warning about tobacco use, Say Goodbye for Now references another historical event that impacted the characters’ lives.

In 1968 the Supreme Court considered the case Loving vs the Commonwealth of Virginia which challenged laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The ruling on June 12 in favor of Mildred and Richard Loving changed their lives and thousands of  couples since.

The landmark ruling was detailed in a “documentary novel”, Loving vs. Virginia and dramatized in a 2016 movie, Loving.

LOVIE a movie
LOVING “A landmark film”

 

 

In the book, Calvin quit smoking. What reason do you need to quit also? Consider this post.

7 Surprising Reasons to be Smoke Free

In this post I remember how smoking has changed since I was a child. The health risk was minimized or even ignored. But that changed. Even so, it remains a leading cause of preventable illness. Here are resources for quitting .

Keep reading

Exploring the HEART of health in fiction

I’d love for you to follow this blog. I share information and inspiration to help you transform challenges into opportunities for learning and growth.

Add your name to the subscribe box to be notified of new posts by email. Click the link to read the post and browse other content. It’s that simple. No spam.

I enjoy seeing who is new to Watercress Words. When you subscribe, I will visit your blog or website. Thanks and see you next time.

 

Dr. Aletha

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting Veterans with Poppies | The American Legion’s Mission

National Poppy Day in the United States commemorates the service and sacrifice of veterans, symbolized by the poppy flower. Lt. Col. John McCrae’s iconic poem “In Flanders Fields” inspired the tradition, and the American Legion Auxiliary distributes paper poppies in exchange for donations to support veterans.

updated May 24, 2024

 

The Friday of Memorial Day weekend is observed as  National Poppy Day. In the United States,  the last Monday in May is Memorial Day, now a holiday weekend.

Another American remembrance day features poppies -Veterans Day, always observed on the 11th day of the 11th month, November.

In the early 1920s the American Legion Auxiliary adopted the poppy as the American Legion Family’s memorial flower. The poppy, a simple red flower, symbolizes the service and sacrifice of veterans of World War I and veterans in other eras.

ALA members distribute millions of paper poppies annually across the country in exchange for donations used to assist disabled and hospitalized veterans in our communities.

armed forces emblems over a field of poppies

Why poppies?

I love the story of the poppies because it has a medical connection.

In the battlefields of Belgium during World War I, poppies grew wild amid the ravages of war. The overturned soils of battle covered the poppy seeds,  allowing them to grow and forever serve as a reminder of the bloodshed of war.

Out of this conflict came a poem, associated with poppies.

 

In Flanders Fields

The now-iconic poem, In Flanders Fields, was written by a military physician, Lt. Col. John McCrae.

Originally from Canada, Dr. McCrae was an English and math teacher, and a poet, before he attended medical school. He moved to England where he was practicing when World War I broke out. He was called to serve as a brigade surgeon.

I suspect that as a physician, he was deeply pained by treating the wounded and losing those he could not save.

“In April 1915, McCrae was stationed in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, in an area known as Flanders, during the bloody Second Battle of Ypres.

Amid the tragic warfare, McCrae’s friend, twenty-two-year-old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed by artillery fire and buried in a makeshift grave.

The following day, Dr. McCrae, after seeing the field of makeshift graves blooming with wild poppies, wrote his famous poem “In Flanders Field,” which would be the second to last poem he would ever write.”

(from John McCrae at poets.org)

Listen to Leonard Cohen recite In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

by Dr. John McCrae, 1872 -1918

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place, and in the sky, 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high! 
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This poem is in the public domain.

 

The poppy is the official state flower of California.  Read

All About Poppies. 

Welcome Home Heroes- military sign
Thanks to the support of generous donors like you, The American Legion can continue to provide much-needed assistance to our veterans, service members and their families.

You can help veterans by donating at this link.

(This is not an affiliate link, this blog receives no commission.)

The American Legion Auxiliary Foundation

sharing the HEART of honoring service and sacrifice

I’d love for you to follow this blog. I share information and inspiration to help you transform challenges into opportunities for learning and growth.

Add your name to the subscribe box to be notified of new posts by email. Click the link to read the post and browse other content. It’s that simple. No spam.

I enjoy seeing who is new to Watercress Words. When you subscribe, I will visit your blog or website. Thanks and see you next time.

Dr. Aletha