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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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September 2005
Writer finds splendour in debilitating disease
The Brow of Dawn: One Woman’s Journey with MS By Catherine Edward Illustrations by Dale McNevin The Acorn Press, Charlottetown, PEI, 2004 $19.95 CAD, $16.95 USD, Trade Paper, 160 pages ISBN 1-894838-14-9
Life brings everyone its share of challenges, but for Catherine Edward it struck at a time when most of us would feel things were falling into place.
Her husband, Michael, held the same values for living and commitment to their marriage and faith, and he shared her joy in creation and life. The Edwards lived on 100 beautiful acres of woods with a river, a place full of the sounds of birds and the scent of flowers. They called their home Pearsie, a paradise better then their dreams. Catherine enjoyed her career and great camaraderie with her friends. With three beloved children, the picture seemed complete.
Then Multiple Sclerosis (MS) came knocking at her door like a “rogue wave,” and the acreage became an ark to float them through the difficult episodes the disease had in store for her.
At first the symptoms could be attributed to minor things, but eventually the need to see a doctor could no longer be ignored. She would experience, for example, a fire sensation knifing down the center of her body, as well as numbness. Her doctor suggested it could be MS and asked her to track the symptoms for a couple of years. Then, he said, there might be enough information for a clinical diagnosis.
The Brow of Dawn grew out of these journals tracking the progression of the disease. The book takes its name from the opening poem in which she resolves to treat each new day as a blank slate. Like the newness expressed in each sunrise and the day that follows, her experience with MS also shows itself in countless ways—new every morning. This is her journey.
MS may affect Catherine’s life, but she’s determined not to let it define her identity and gives it a new name—Magnificent Splendour. “I much prefer having the Magnificent Splendour rather than Multiple Sclerosis,” she writes. “Here, optimism, adaptability, humour, and beauty are vastly more tangible. Also it doesn’t sound nearly so dismal.”
Catherine also has a Christian faith that is subtly manifest throughout the book. She takes joy in singing—when she can—in the choir at St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral in Charlottetown. She speaks of accepting the challenge of her disease “knowing that it is not her body but her soul that is being made fit.”
MS drastically limits her ability to do many things, but those very limitations help make her thankful for the smaller things she is able to accomplish. She discovers a deep joy in fulfilling tasks that are simply taken for granted or unappreciated when health is not an issue.
Catherine’s story reveals an uncomplaining spirit. She remembers her father with fondness, recalling the counsel he gave years earlier as she poured out the woes the world was then inflicting on her. “Why me?” she had asked. To which he responded, “Why not you?” Catherine has taken his answer to heart since her diagnosis: “Why not me, indeed?” She is an optimist.
The Brow of Dawn is divided into nine parts, each beginning with a poem and containing a few short chapters recounting anecdotes from her life. Her book honestly and eloquently shares the difficult reality that life with a chronic and debilitating disease has brought to Catherine and describes an enlightened way of responding to it. She faces a serious problem and is living this difficult process with her family, faith and home intact.
It is a journey still in process, but her attitude and fortitude are examples from which anyone who encounters setbacks in life can benefit.
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Reviewed by Margaret Koop|
Copyright The Anglican Planet © 2005 |